Puzzlers - hiatus
by BellaTrixie123
Summary: When Bella returns to Forks from her high flying life in the Big Apple, she doesn't know what to expect. The journey was never going to be smooth, but did it have to have this many bumps along the way? But are all of those bumps worth it when she realises what's waiting for her at the end of the road? Very dark at times, but happy things too! No love triangle here - E&B only.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Most characters belong to S Meyer. More from me at the bottom of the chapter!**

AaAaAaA

**Bella POV**

Being back is weird.

I can't think of a single other word to describe it.

Five years I've been away from Forks, five years! Well, I was back for Daddy's funeral three years ago, but that's it.

I never thought I'd miss this place when I left, especially because I thought I'd leave all of the bad memories here along with it. But I was wrong. So, so wrong. Not only did I miss it, but I could never forget those memories either. You don't simply leave things like that behind.

Don't get me wrong the Big Apple was fun! I went out and drinking, I made friends, I made good investments, I was living the high life. So why am I back? It's something I've asked myself every day since I bought this place, something I asked on the flight to Seattle, something I asked on the drive here, and now I'm asking it again. Damn I wish I had an answer. The dreariness of the early evening shrouds my apartment in darkness, it never got this dark in New York with the city lights blazing through even the best blackout blinds at all hours.

At that moment, the doorbell buzzes and interrupts my thoughts. I rush over knowing exactly who's on the other side. Okay so maybe he was one of the reasons I was back.

"Jacob!" I gasp the second the door swings open, he envelops me in his arms and gives me a massive bear hug that only Jake can give. I take in a lungful of his smell - fresh cedar, a hint of sweat, and salt from the sea air at La Push. Oh how I've missed this smell. He smells of safety, of happiness, of innocence.

"Oh Bells I've missed you." He says through his cheesy grin, "The Big Apple wasn't treating you so well, huh?"

"No it was great actually, but where am I going to get my bear hugs from over there?" His response to this is to tackle me with another one of his giant hugs. But lets be honest, I was asking for it.

I welcome him into the apartment and he takes a seat on the still plastic coated couch, it makes a funny noise as he sinks down into the cushions as the air tries to escape from under his large frame.

He must think I'm a mess - I've been here for hours now and the place still looks exactly the same as the second I arrived. It's a large, open apartment with floor to ceiling windows on one side that lead out to a balcony that stretches the entire side of the apartment, giving a perfect view of the forest that surrounds us. It was the sort of place that would never require turning on a light, well, if I lived somewhere with natural light that is. Forks is still as notoriously dark and rainy as I remember. The kitchen is in one corner, and I can see the area next to it which is where a dining table will eventually sit, and then the rest is just one massive sitting room. There's a door on one wall which leads into a small hallway with the bedroom on one side, and the large bathroom on the other. Everything is a light cream colour with contrasting dark mahogany beams running across the ceiling and the light bulbs hung down from gold chains, part of me wants to put lampshades on them just to piss off the architect who was obviously going for the 'less is more' theme. It was about as artsy and fancy as you could get here in Forks. If this place was in New York, it probably would have been an old shipping warehouse with a rich history telling the story of the working man, people would have passed it on tours and taken pictures of the outside, but the person living inside had probably never done a days manual labour in their life. Here, it was just built to look old and probably sat empty for years until someone rich enough finally came along to Forks to buy it. I smirk at the thought before turning back to Jake.

"Do you want a drink? The water's still running a bit weird but I've got some beer in the fridge."

"Beer sounds great." He still can't wipe that cheese eating grin off his face and it makes me appreciate his company even more.

As we settle down on the squeaky sofa, it's like no time at all has passed. It's as if I'm still that wide eyed eighteen year old girl who viewed the whole world through rose tinted glasses.

"So other than my amazing hugs, what else has brought you back to good ol' Forks?" He questions.

I give a shallow laugh, "Isn't that the dream? Go to the big city, build your empire, then find somewhere more relaxing to live whilst you just do the minimum required of you?"

"Yeah but Bells, you're a sunshine gal. You moaned about the weather here every single day without fail," He paused to raise his eyebrows at me, "And I would know because it was me you ranted at every single day. Don't most of these people move to Hawaii, or California?"

"I'm not most people, Jake." I say as I give him a soft, playful kick. I feel so at ease with this guy, and it feels nice... different to what I'm used to. There's no need for barriers or guards, I can just be me and he's just him.

He turns to look at me, face way too solemn all of a sudden, "I'm just surprised, you know, I never thought I'd see you step foot in this town ever again."

"Our lives can't be ruled by fear or by the past." I repeated back to him what my New York therapist repeated back to me time and time again for the first year and a bit of therapy. She eventually gave up, obviously seeing me for the lost cause I am, and instead prescribed me a fuck load of drugs that numbed me to just about every feeling known to man. I threw them all away a few months before coming here, I was in one of my infamous Bella Price rages and I felt way too embarrassed to go and ask for more. Funnily enough it wasn't long after that episode that I bought the place here.

I spend the rest of my evening catching up with Jake. We've never lost contact, the joys of the social media age, but sometimes there's things that can't be expressed over the phone or through emojis on a screen. I've missed him, more than I thought possible.

But our time comes to an end all too soon when his friend Seth arrives to pick up an all too merry Jake. Maybe I should have cut him off after beer number two.

And then I'm alone again. The laughter and light that is Jacob Black leaves me. I pick at the label on my empty beer bottle. What do people do in Forks? It's been too long, I can't even remember. I'm so used to the buzz of NYC! The city that never sleeps, something is always going on, and those fleeting friends you never really build a connection with are always up for a drink and a dance. Then when you're not drinking and dancing, you work, and you work damn hard to make it there. You pull seventy hour weeks but still manage to end up in the bars most nights, who needs sleep when you've got a coffee shop on every corner? I can't even remember the last time I cooked a meal other than a quick bowl of Ramen - who has time to actually cook in that city? And who actually needs to? It could be 4am on Christmas Day and you've got the choice of Thai, Italian, Mexican, and everything in between. I ponder whether the kitchen here will get more use. I'm sure cheese steak at The Lodge will start to get real old real quick.

Note to self: Go to the grocery store before you starve to death.

God it's quiet! I used to laugh at all the idiots who talk about deafening silence, but I get it now. When you're so used to the buzz of a big city, living in the middle of a forest is the sort of quiet that plays on your mind more than any noise could. I rummage through some boxes to find my emergency pack of cigarettes before heading out onto the balcony, dragging a chair with me.

I don't smoke, not really. I used to, I think everyone did at that point. Now they're just reserved for... special occasions and stressful occasions, and I suppose moving back across the country is one of them. I'm just yet to decide which.

The first drag always goes right to my head and I kind of love it. The feeling of the heavy smoke whimsically cascading down my throat is my own form of therapy. Hey we all have quirks, right? I close my eyes and see stars, then I open them and they're still there, I can actually see the stars in this place!

I pull out my phone to check my notifications as I inhale the smoke into my lungs: Fifty or so work emails, ignore. Six missed calls from my top employee Mike, ignore. Oh, a push notification from Puzzle Pictures? Yes please!

This game was nuts in New York and I loved every second of it. Every day when I left my office you'd find me wondering through Central Park finding fellow Puzzlers to play along with. You walk to find puzzles, then you meet others to solve the more difficult ones together - it was supposed to build some sense of community and camaraderie, but in reality with how busy New York was you'd never see the same Puzzler twice. But I was happy with that, a fleeting interaction is still an interaction. The puzzles ranged from maths equations, riddles, to actual jigsaw puzzles, and puzzles where different people got different clues. I love it, mostly because whilst my mind focused on that, it didn't focus on other things.

This puzzle was just a simple riddle:

_"What do you throw out when you want to use it, and take it in when you don't?"_

Think Bella, think. Well I never said I was good at the game.

I wonder if Forks has any puzzlers.

I doubt it.

But maybe...

I switch to Facebook on my phone and search 'Puzzle Pictures Forks'. Nothing. 'Puzzle picture Forks'? Nothing. 'Puzzlers Forks'. It's not looking hopeful. 'Puzzlers in Forks'. Bingo! There's a Facebook group with a whopping twenty three members. Wow. That's like half the population here, right? I click the little join button and head to bed, leaving my phone in the sitting room so it doesn't keep me awake all night.

O-o-O-o-O

A sharp pain in my back wakes me up the next morning. I damn myself for not getting organised quicker, pulling the duvet down onto the reclaimed wood floor was not how I wanted to spend my first night back in Forks. What I'd do right now to be in my queen size bed back on the Upper East Side...

NO Bella, you've moved. You'll run things from here from now on. Mike can handle the rest in New York.

I wrap my dressing gown around my achy body and head out into the living area/kitchen/whatever the hell it is. I've never been one to jump straight out of bed, usually choosing to silence my alarm once or ten times before moving, but something about that cold floor is not enticing me to stay funnily enough.

Coffee. I need coffee.

"Fuck!" I exclaim as I rifle through the boxes to find my coffee. It's too fucking early for this.

I completely empty the first box onto the floor, things begin to roll around and clatter on the floor in the most ear piercing way. BUt no coffee marker. Not that it would have survived the fall.

The second box faces the same fate. Still nothing. Am I really going to have to do this fro everything and make this place look even worse?

Think Bella. What do I do?

I walk back to the bedroom and throw on yesterday's clothes which consisted of space patterned yoga pants, a vest top, and a loose black jumper. I need coffee and I need coffee now so the diner will have to do. I can't break everything in my apartment just yet.

I chuck on my trainers, grab my car keys and phone, and slam the front door behind me. I'll deal with this mess later.

It's fucking cold, but at least my new Mercedes has heated seats.

I drive like a maniac down to the Diner. I can guarantee my hair is a birds nest, I forgot to take my makeup off last night meaning I probably look like a Panda, and I'm sure that if looks could kill the whole of Forks would be dead right about now. Mind you, would anyone even notice if that happened?

In New York nobody gives a shit what you look like, they'll probably never see you again. Your friends may have a bitch behind your back, but everyone else is too busy to notice. Here though, here's a different story. They'll remember everything. And EVERYONE bitches behind your back.

Everything Bella, they'll remember everything.

My heart starts to beat faster and I push my foot down on the gas pedal a little too much, the engine revvs in protest.

They know everything. You're no longer anonymous. You're no longer Bella Price.

You're Bella Swan, the girl that-

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BRAIN!" I scream at my inner monologue. Slow and steady breaths, that's what the therapist said. Slow and steady. My heart starts to slow and I slowly ease my foot off the pedal. I realise my hands are shaking but that should pass, too. It usually does. I thought moving here was supposed to help me, but I guess only time will tell. As much as I'd hoped it would solve things, money can only buy material goods and temporary fixes, this sort of stuff is a lot harder to deal with. I stick the radio on hoping that that it'll calm me, but I don't even pay attention to what's on. Was it the news? Was it music? I don't have damn clue.

I get to the diner quicker than I should have thanks to the panic speeding. I'll be fine after a coffee, I have to be. I've got too much to do to let things get out of hand.

I pull my car into it's own parking space, something I'm going to have to get used to again, and dash through the sudden downpour that just happens to start as I park up, and into the diner, taking a seat huddled away in a corner.

Thankfully a waitress spots me pretty quickly and skips on over to me with so much enthusiasm that it sickens me, "What can I get for you today?" She beams, showing me her perfect set of white teeth that sit perfectly in her perfect face with her perfect freckles and her perfect blue eyes and perfect strawberry blonde hair. You can also see that she's got perfect boobs and a perfect ass under that disgusting peachy coloured apron that nobody should look good in, that she somehow managed to, even though it clashes with her hair and Forks level pale skin. Damn I must look like shit next to her.

"Coffee. Lots of coffee."

She continues, her sickeningly sweet smile still plastered on her sickeningly sweet face, "One large coffee coming your way." And off she goes. I forgot what the service was like here. My first year in New York I was shocked at how some of the wait staff treated me, but then I realised that they weren't being rude per say, they just weren't in your face over the top 'have a nice day' nice. By the end of my time there I actually quite enjoyed it.

I grab my phone from where I've placed it down next to me and half close my eyes as I grimace and take a look at the notifications. More missed calls from Mike, more work emails, some texts about work, and an angry text from Mike.

**I thought you were going to Forks, not the fucking moon. ANSWER ME!**

Well damn, I thought he may have been able to run things for at least a day.

**I'll talk to you after coffee. **

I type back quickly. Mike knows, Mike understands. No good business deal was ever made without the help of either caffeine, alcohol, or some illicit substance.

"One large coffee." Sickeningly sweet waitress tells me as she plonks a grainy, white mug down in front of me along with a pot of sugar and a pot of milk. The handle has a crack down the side of it, that has turned a sickening shade of brown from all of the coffees that it's clearly held since. Nice.

"Thanks." I mutter, barely looking up from my phone.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you Bella Swan?" She asks, which certainly did get my attention. I realise it's the first time someone has actually referred to me by my real, full name in so long.

I side eye her massively and then answer shortly, "Yes."

She looks like she's about to burst with happiness at this point and I swear I heard her let off a small squeal, "I'm Jake's girlfriend Lucy, I'm so happy to finally meet you! He talk about you all the time, says about how his best friend is making it big in the big city."

"His what?" Honestly? I'm taken aback. Not that he should have to tell me about his love interests, but still.

"I'm his girlfriend." The perfect smile falters which sends a pang of guilt through me and I don't even know why.

I put on my best fake smile, one I've perfected thanks to numerous meetings with leering clients who don't even try to hide the fact they're staring at my tits, "It's nice to meet you too, we should do lunch sometimes." I keep it short, mostly because I've already forgotten her name and I want her to piss off an leave me to my caffeine.

We exchange numbers and she actually skips off, like actual skipping. And she's not an eight year old girl, either.

I turn back to my coffee, work can wait until after caffeine.

I pour a dash of milk in and ignore the sugar, I'm 'sweet enough' as my dad used to tell me.

I take a parched gulp. This shit is basically a cup of muddy water, nothing like the fancy stuff I used to get back home. I mean this is home, but other home, and I don't mean Phoenix either.

They don't even offer lattes or cappuccinos here, the most basic of coffees, they just spoon in some granules and pour over the boiling water. But it has a caffeine content, which is all I care about right now.

Just as I'm about to take my second sip of the Angel given drink, my phone starts to buzz next to me non stop.

"Fuck." I mutter to myself, what's a girl got to do to get some peace?

I grab my phone ready to launch it through the window, when I realise it's not Mike hounding me, it's the local Puzzlers. They've added me to a group chat.

**Hey newbie! Glad you've joined us. **

Someone called Amy types.

**Great to have you on the team Bella**

Another wellwisher called Ryan confirms.

I check the list of members in the chat and realise, with great happiness, that I do not recognise a single one.

"Anchors!" I accidentally shout out loud for all the diners to hear. That's the answer to the riddle from earlier.

With that, I begin to type away furiously, "what could possibly go wrong?" I ask myself. By the time I pull my face out of my phone, the long forgotten coffee has already gone cold.

ZzZzZzZ

**A/N: Thoughts? Opinions? Love it? Hate it? I've been out of the fanfic writing game for a long, long while (about six years now) so please bear with me as I get back into the groove of things. I've instead been filling my time with non fiction writing for YouTube so you could say I'm an old newbie at this point. I've also never written anything for Twilight in my life, all of my other fics on my old account that I forgotten the password to are Harry Potter and probably the most innocent story lines you'll ever read. But I'm older now, and (very slightly) wiser, so this fic will be much much darker than anything I've ever written before. It will talk about mental health as well, so I will warn you all of that now. **

**This story does have a clear plan that I've written out but at the moment I'm not sure just how many chapters there will be, there will be ups and downs throughout with lots of angst but I will promise you now, it will all lead somewhere. There will also be other naughty stuff in later chapters. I will be updating twice a week, I don't currently have set days but will try for Mondays and Thursdays. **

**I am English trying to write as an American, so if I mess up that's on me. I know you guys spell some stuff differently but they flag up on my spell checks so yeah. **

**Please let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: It's early because when inspiration strikes, inspiration strikes! I hope you enjoy.**

OoOoO

**Bella POV**

AaAaAaA

**Is everyone still on to meet at 12 at the square?**

Damn these Puzzlers are active.

I've been in Forks for a few weeks now, everything is finally unpacked and I've even created my perfect little office in the corner. It's been a bit of a change going from a view of the New York skyline, more PAs than I could count, and Mike's shitty music seeping through the walls and into my office, to this. But I'm getting used to it. Here I can just sit in my pyjamas allll day long (believe me, I do) and stare at the trees outside. I even found my coffee maker!

I'm actually putting more hours into my business here, probably because there's nothing to do here but work. Jake comes over every few days, he even helped me sort this place out in the end, but other than that the only time I leave the house is to get groceries. I'm still not really using the kitchen though - it's surprising how long you can exist for entirely on toast, noodles and microwave meals. The coffee helps.

Every time my phone goes with a notification from the Puzzlers, I do consider going out and meeting them. It lasts for a split second, then I decide against it. I want to go back to the fleeting interactions and never seeing the same person twice - here I'd see them the once, then I'd see them again and again and again. Deep connections are not my thing.

My mind flicks back to the conversation I had last night with Jake.

_"You know Bells, there's more than Forks to just me and the grocery store."_

_"I know." I respond, squirming under his intense gaze. _

_He sighs before speaking again, "You should get out there are meet people! There's always things going on, be a part of them."_

_I actually laugh out loud this time, "what is that in the one bar we have? Wow, so much going on."_

_"Okay okay I'll give you that," he scoffs back, "but come on Bella. You're twenty seven, you're pretty, you're successful. Go out and make some friends and have some fun."_

_I groan and turn away, "But I like it like this. I don't need my perfect little bubble being popped by other people."_

_Jacob ignores my excuses, "Promise me you'll try?"_

_"Fine," I snap, "I'll try."_

But do I want to try? Just the thought of meeting those strangers is sending me into a tailspin. My palms go clammy and I begin to bite away at the skin around my nails, it was a nasty habit but not one I was likely to quit any time soon.

It's 11.30 - if I leave now, I'd be there in time.

I look back to my laptop and see all the work I've got to do. It's never ending I swear, so much paperwork to sign, so many proposals to go through, so many numbers to go through time and time again. I'm almost envious of Mike who's still in New York. We're both from here, it's why I hired him - I remembered from school how amazing he was at business and all the shit that goes with it so dragged him to New York with me after seeing him the day of my Dad's funeral. It was definitely a turning point for me, after he got into the swing of things both just watched our bank accounts go up and up.

Fuck it, what's the worst thing that could happen?

I message the group before I can let me mind second guess this and back out.

**I'll be there. **

I quickly get changed into more presentable clothes, and by presentable I can some jeans and a hoodie. I scrape my hair up on top of my head in a messy bun, throw my down jacket on, and off I go.

On the car ride over I stick the radio on full blast to drown out any and all thoughts that pass through my head. The roads here are winding and empty as they meander through the woodlands and down the hills. I don't know who designed them, but the point was obviously not to get from A to B as quickly as possible. Everything here is a scenic route, as if nobody is ever in a rush and would rather admire the beauty that surrounds them. The same fucking beauty every day though? Man, maybe I should create a cable car or something to get me places quicker without the bullshit roads.

When I arrive and park up at the square I can instantly spot them. There's four of them, three men and a woman, all stood around having a laugh which each other whilst also keeping their heads in their phones. The woman does a little dance side to side which makes her look like a crab. They all throw their heads back in laughter at that point. Do I really want to interrupt this moment?

Fuck. My heart starts to beat faster, I can feel it hammering against my ribcage like those concrete drills you hear from miles off when there's construction work going on.

Why am I sweating so much? Jesus Christ, I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead and feel that clammy perspiration build. I turn the AC on and point the fans so they're blasting my face with ice cool jets.

They'll hate me.

Or they'll already know who I am.

The shake in my hands return and I find myself nervously tapping my foot and jiggling my thighs.

"Deep breaths." I murmur to myself. I can see them outside chatting away, they're all dressed in the dreary browns and greens that may as well be the uniform of Forks. Do the clothes shops here even offer any variation of colour or style? Brown boots, dark jeans, and a down jacket which is always one shade of green or another. How joyful.

My mind begins to race with all the possibilities of how this could go down. They're chatty by the looks of it so they'll make me chat. That means I'll either lie about aspects of myself which could make it more difficult down the line, or I'll blurt everything out within minutes of meeting them - the chronic oversharer that I am.

Either way they'll hate me. It's just a case of whether they'll hate me right away, or whether their hate will come with time.

I curse Jake internally, this was a terrible idea.

Taking in one last deep breath and squeeze my eyes closed, I stretch myself over the steering wheel and bang my head down with a sudden thud.

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP_

Fuck.

Subtle as ever Bella, subtle as ever. Head down right on the horn.

Not only do all of the Puzzlers look over, but all the other fucking people in the vicinity - including some old man who's even opened a window to see what's going on.

Well they've spotted me to say the least. I take in a deep breath to buy myself a few more seconds before reluctantly jumping out of my car.

"Oops." I call over to them with a guilty half smile.

All four of them burst out laughing.

But there's one of them I notice more, clearer now I'm not viewing the scene from behind a fogged up windshield. He's taller than the others with one of those perfectly angular jaws people pay thousands of dollars for and never quite achieve. His laughter shows me his perfect white teeth with slightly pointed canines. I can't see his eyes from here, but I'm sure they're just as perfect and full of mirth. His hair is light brown with copper and honey highlights running through them, they seem to reflect the little bit of light we have around here. After he's finished with his laughter he looks right at me and shows me his million dollar smile.

My heart is beating for a whole other reason now.

The girl reaches me before he does, but I struggle to take my eyes off of him even with her bouncing around in front of me.

"Are you Bella?" She positively beams at me, forcing me to tear my eyes away from the man.

Now I'm short at 5ft4 (and a half), but I'm still a fair few inches taller than her. She's a tiny little thing and reminds me of a pixie. She has the most beautiful, giant eyes like some sort of blue eyed sugar glider. Freckles cover her nose and cheeks like stars in the night sky, or trash on a New York sidewalk. She's got short brown hair that she has spiked up in all different directions, bed hed on purpose kinda style. She's got thin lips that she's tried to hide by overlining them like crazy with a purple lipstick, and she's beautiful. Damn, when did Forks become infested with model material?

"Hi yeah I'm Bella." I half smile again, this time even more awkwardly.

"We were waiting for you!" She grabs my arm which I hate, then gestures with her other to the other three stood there, "we're the most active Puzzlers here and were so glad when we realised there's another one of us around."

She drags me over to them and begins to make introductions, "This is Dylan," she says as she points to a younger looking guy with sandy blonde hair and wire framed glasses, he gives me a quick smile in response before burying his head back into his phone, "and this is Tyler," She then points to the next person with tanned skin, jet black hair and eyes almost as dark as mine, he gives me an award winning grin, "and this is Edward."

So hot guy has a name. He leans in to shake my hand, but I pretend not to notice and instead turn to pixie girl, "and what was your name?"

She laughs in a melodic way, "How silly of me!" she giggles again, "I'm Alice."

"Well it's nice to meet you Alice, it's nice to meet you all." I utter to them all, the clammy palms still not letting up.

"Are you any good at maths?" Tyler asks me.

"Uhh I'm alright, why'd you ask?" I question defensively.

"This one's a math puzzle which we all suck at." He motions around the group. Apparently my need to get all defensive was completely unfounded, what a shocker.

I pull out my phone to view this one myself. Maths was never my strong point at school, but I've found myself to be very good with numbers since. I think I was just very distracted in school when I was sat next to the then love of my life Joshua. No, Bella, don't think of him right now. Don't let him invade your brain - he can't do that anymore. You can't let him.

But what if they know him?

Urgh, I need to stop being stupid. My heart races again and I squeeze my eyes and look to the ground.

I feel a hand touch my shoulder and I instantly freeze up and shuffle out of the touch, "hey are you okay?" A deep, velvety voice rumbles.

"Fine, fine," I snap and look up, it's hot guy, "I'm just trying to work out the puzzle."

Lie, lie, lie.

"Oooh Bella's in the zone!" Alice giggles and jumps up and down on the spot with the grace of a ballerina.

This time when I look down, I actually have a look at the puzzle on my phone screen. It's a pretty simple equation that doesn't even require a pen and paper to work out, "it's 37."

I instantly see them tapping away on their phones, typing in the answer.

"Looks like we've found ourselves a brain box." Joshua says, the rest of them mutter in agreement.

And on we walk to find new puzzles. Alice's constant chatter distracts from the fact that I'm not saying a word. I tune out what she's talking about and just follow the group like a good little sheep.

Well, I think one person may have noticed - the way Edward keeps looking back at me with his thick brows creased together shows me he knows something is up.

Does he know who I am? Does he know my story? Or did I just offend him by jumping away from his touch in a not too subtle way? This shit isn't worth the hassle, I think this will be my first and last outing with the Puzzlers.

OoOoOoO

**Bella are you joining us today?**

The person I now know to be Alice the pixie asks me in the group chat.

**I don't think so guys, sorry. Lots of work to do **

I add a little working man emoji to reiterate my point.

**Boo :( I got a puzzle last night that I think I'll need you to solve**

**Maybe next time, yeah?**

**Hmm fine**

I turn the notifications off and try to go back to my work. It's 10am now and I've been working since 5am with no breaks. The work just piles up and up no matter how much I try to chip away at it.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I know I'm lucky. I enjoy what I do as well, but man, it's a lot. Most people only dream of getting to my position, and many of those who try simply fail. Weirdly enough when they do fail, they often end up back in the small town life they tried to escape. I'm the successful anomaly who's done exactly the same.

My therapist actually recommended against coming back here, said she didn't think I was ready yet. But I don't pay for for real estate advice, so I did it anyway. She also had a look on Yelp for therapists who would be local to me when she realised how set I was in my decision - she found one bible bashing nut job with no formal qualifications other than one she assured me he bought online parading around as a therapist. Apparently mental health issues just don't exist here.

If only.

I do need a break, this shit is mind numbing.

**Actually Alice I can go for a coffee with you now if you like, help you solve that puzzle?**

How daring of me.

**Eeeek! Sounds great. I'll see you at the Diner?**

Her overkill happiness even seeps into her messages, eww.

**See you soon.**

And with that I'm off again. Leaving the house two days in a row, woohoo.

I actually don't feel my usual amount of anxiety on the drive into town, I think I'm pretty used to it now. Alice doesn't get my back up like other people do and I guess she's harmless.

When I walk in she's already sat at a booth with two coffees on the table, what a hero. She waves at me as I walk over, as if I hadn't already spotted her.

"Hi Bella!" She chirps.

"Hey." I respond sheepishly.

She tilts her head to one side and smiles right at me, "thank you for coming to help me, I'm no good with maths. I've got an artist's brain." That doesn't surprise me at all.

I take a large gulp of the mud like liquid that passes for coffee here, "it's no problem. I needed a break from work anyway."

"What do you do for work?" She asks. Personal questions, urgh I hate them.

I plaster on a fake smile, "oh you know, just stuff. Mostly pushing paper around and deleting emails."

She giggles again, the light to my dark, "I'm sure you do more than that! I work at Forks High School. Do you know it?"

Well shit, "Know of it, yeah. What do you teach?" I deflect.

"Drama."

"Would it be rude if I said that doesn't surprise me in the least?" I ask, taking in her outfit - a loose fitting, flowery red shirt that hangs off of one shoulder showing a lacy black bra strap. It's the most colourful thing I've seen since moving here, too bad she hides it under a dreary camo coat whenever she's outside.

Her laughter fills the entire diner, god does she ever stop? "It's safe to say most people don't expect me to be the geography teacher."

I buy the next couple of coffees as we continue to chat and laugh together, her more than me. I find it hard to focus on everything she says because she is the living embodiment of a duracell bunny, but she's easy company. We solve a few puzzles together, I help her with her maths problems and she helps me with the riddles which are my weak point. I can tell she's a teacher with the way she patiently explains how she got to that answer so I know for the future, meanwhile I do no explaining and just tell her the number she needs to type in.

We're sat there for a couple of hours before she tells me she has to leave to go and plan some lessons for the coming week.

"It was lovely chatting with you though, Bella." She tells me.

And weirdly, I can honestly tell her the same thing, "You know Alice, if you're ever struggling with a puzzle again, just come by my place and I can help you out. I'm always there working anyway."

Clearly I'm having a brave day today.

I write down my address on a napkin and pass it across the table to her, she puts it straight into her purse.

"That sounds simply magical, I'll see you soon." She says as she gets up from the table and leaves. Everything about her is graceful and magical, each movement more like a dance routine with a flourish to her step. Maybe small town folk aren't all so bad after all.

OoOoOo

A few days pass where I don't speak to anyone but Mike, and even then that was over the phone. I think the novelty of having me back is starting to wear off for Jake as his visits become less and less frequent. It's gone from every other day to once so far this week and it's already Friday. I don't mind too much though, I have my paperwork to keep me busy and my own company isn't all that bad. I've lost the pyjamas at times though, enjoying the feeling of being able to walk around my apartment completely naked. It is liberating.

I did go and knock on the apartment downstairs yesterday to see if they had any milk but I got no answer, I peered through a window because I'm nosy like that, but the place is completely empty. I've been drinking my coffee black since then because going to the store seems like a bit more effort than I'm willing to put in. It did make me happy in the knowledge that I'm completely alone here, though.

With everyone working Monday to Friday, the Puzzlers seem to get awfully quiet during the week. There's been a few meetups but I've mostly just been reading and ignoring the messages. Much easier that way.

I'll get there in my own time, but I've accepted the fact that I'm not going to wake up one morning and be all 'I'm okay'. These things take time. So much fucking time.

I sit back in my chair and stretch. My muscles ache from being in the same position all day every day. I look at my phone to check the time, 6.15pm. Wow, later than I thought! I've been sat here since six this morning. Twelve hours without moving is not great, yet I'm still no closer to completing my work.

As I peel myself away from my desk to make another coffee, my doorbell starts to buzz.

"What in the hell?" I mutter to myself. I peer through my windows to try and get a look at who it is but to no avail. The buzzer continues to buzz, "fuck."

Grabbing the only weapon I own, I slowly walk to the door, the anticipation killing me. My heart starts up again like it always seems to and I can hear the blood rushing around my head. I tentatively take a few more shaky steps to the door and reach for the telecom system.

"H-hello?" I stammer out. Suddenly feeling a bit less happy that downstairs is totally empty.

"Guess who?" The magical voice rings out, of course it's Alice. I'm a fucking idiot. I press the buzzer to let her in and open the door ready for her, she breezes up the stairs and the smell of her floral perfume gets to me before she does.

"Hey Alice." I smile, glad that I chose to wear clothes to work today.

"Hey Bells," A nickname already, "I hope you don't mind but I've brought my cousin along, too."

That's when I spot him in all his rugged glory. Rain drips from his pointed nose as he walks into my apartment. I close the door behind us and, without speaking, usher them over to the couch.

He looks me up and down with a peculiar expression on his face, like a mixture of curiosity and confusion, and then he opens his mouth.

"Hello Bella. Why are you holding a spatula?"

ZzZzZzZ

**A/N: He's heeere! We'll be getting into the story a whole lot more over the next few chapters. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Most characters belong to S Meyer. **

**Ooh the first Edward chapter, how exciting. This chapter is also longer than the other two so buckle up!**

AaAaAaA

**Edward POV**

She's fascinating, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

She's stood there in casual sweats, eyes wild, hair messy, metal spatula in hand. I've never seen anything quite like her before in my life.

She shakily puts the spatula down on her desk as her eyes dart quickly between Alice, myself, the balcony, the door, the ceiling and just about everywhere else.

Speaking of balcony, this place is nice! Nicer than I could have imagined. Nicer than most of Forks with its never changing sequence of the same looking white washed, wooden buildings with pointed roofs. There's definitely a distinct lack of personal items around, it looks more like a show home that someone is squatting in than an actual home. The kitchen looks barely used, everything still has that brand new smell to it, and the only part that looks remotely lived in is the corner with the desk with papers scattered all over the top of it and a small, red desk lamp. I also notice than an indoor chair from the unused dinner table has been dragged out onto the balcony to be battered by the elements - there is a plastic bag on the seat, however that looks like it is also covered with rain rendering it useless at keeping your bum dry.

"Make yourselves at home I guess." Bella tells Alice and I, running her fingers through her hair, she winces as they snag on knots.

We sit down on the sofa as Bella stands there staring at us. I'm starting to think this open invite Alice was talking about wasn't quite so open anymore.

Not that Alice notices as she looks around the place in awe, this kind of place would be her dream home with the rustic chic look, "Oh Bella," She gushes, "I love this place!" Called it.

Alice speaking seems to have broken Bella out of her own thoughts, "Thanks," she pauses, "do either of you want a drink?" She wanders over to the kitchen and starts to look in cupboards, "I have coffee but only black because I've run out of milk, but there's also water, white wine or beer."

"Ooh it is Friday!" Alice claps, "I'll take a glass of wine."

"And you?" Bella turns to look at me, I notice she's looking just above me at the wall behind though, refusing to make eye contact for some reason.

"I'll have a beer thanks." I do my best to make eye contact with the host, but to no avail.

Bella brings over a very large glass of wine and two bottles of beer and places them on the coffee table in front of the sofa. I grab mine and lean all the way back. It's been a long day, hell it's been a long month. All I wanted to do this evening is crawl into bed and sleep and not wake up until Monday morning. But Alice dragged me here instead, not that it took a lot of persuading - this girl has piqued by curiosity. And this isn't so bad I suppose - the sofa is unbelievably comfortable. It's a large corner sofa, yet it's not put in a corner and is instead in the middle of the living space, it's about a hundred different shades of green with all different patterns swirling over different parts of it. It's as if Ireland threw up all over it.

I close my eyes and squeeze the bridge of my nose after taking my first large swig of beer, it's going to be hard to not fall asleep right now.

I look up to see Alice, legs curled underneath her, showing Bella the puzzle she's been trying to figure out, Bella sits perched right on the edge of the seat with her body rigid as if she'd prepared to jump and take cover any second now.

"So Bella, what do you do for a living?" I ask because I can't help myself.

She looks up at me like a rabbit caught in headlights, "I work from home." She tells me.

"Doing what exactly?" It seems the more she tries to hide information, the more curious I get. Is she some sort of king pin drug lord for the cartel, trying to bring all sorts of class As into Forks? I snort at the thought, I wonder how well she'd do.

She fiddles with the label on the beer bottle and I can almost see the cogs in her brain going as she tries to formulate an answer, "I work in business. It's all pretty boring though, if I told you both more you'd both be falling asleep."

Alice interjects, "Eddy owns a business!" Urgh I hate it when people call me that, "do you own one too?"

"What sort of business?" She directs the questions to Alice, not me.

"It's a building business, he's probably helped build most of the houses in Forks at this point." She laughs. Alice is always singing my praises more than she should, we mostly build garden sheds and walls. It's not exactly prime real estate up here.

Bella nods, "I can't say I do anything that hands on. I'm more of a background worker for a few businesses."

"Oh so you're more of a stage hand than the lead role." Alice says.

"Something like that." Bella smiles, it doesn't reach her eyes though, "so how do you two now each other?" She's deflecting, I can tell.

"Guess." I say before Alice can tell her.

Bella looks shocked, her forehead creases. Now she makes eye contact with me, "High school sweethearts?"

Alice laughs out loud but I give her a nudge so she'll keep her mouth shut.

"Worked the same Saturday job?" She shakes her head, still not breaking eye contact as her forehead creases even more, "Or I don't know - met at a bar?"

"Because the Forks nightlife is a crazy one." I chuckle.

"We're cousins," Alice gives in, "but we were raised more like brother and sister by Ed's partners Esme and Carlisle." She conveniently leaves out the part that her mum skipped town when she was a few months old and her father is a drunk she hasn't seen in over twenty years, not that I can blame her.

"So are you from Forks?" Bella seems to be relaxing a bit more, actually leaning back into the sofa now instead of forward and ready to run for cover, "I don't think I've ever seen you two before."

"I thought you just moved here?" I quiz her. Damn, if looks could kill I'd be a dead man right now.

"Uh, w-well," she stutters, "my Dad is - was - from here." She's a closed book but ever so slowly I'm getting to read the pages.

Alice gives me a steely gaze, I think she regrets inviting me here tonight the more I seem to ruin her new found friendship, "We're from Seattle," she tells Bella, "the teaching field is super competitive there so I applied here and got the job four years ago! She claps her hands, "Edward decided to move up here with me so I wouldn't be completely alone."

"That's very kind of you, Edward." Bella mumbles. What Alice leaves out is the fact that I moved up here with her because two days before she left, I walked in on my fiance fucking my old boss in the house I'd just finished building for us. What a bitch.

"Where have you moved from?" I ask Bella, before my big mouth cousin does get the chance to tell my story.

"New York." She says.

"Are you from there?" I quizz.

She takes her time to down the rest of her beer before walking back to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of vodka and a few tumblers. When she saunters back she offers it around but we both decline leaving Bellal to pour herself a rather large serving which she downs in one, "I'm from Forks. I left when I was young and moved to Phoenix with my mum, then she went travelling with her new husband so I can back here with my Dad," her breath catches in her throat, she takes a few moments to begin talking again, "then I moved to New York about five years ago, and now I'm back."

Bella stares into space with her mouth slightly agape, she's hunched forward again and her hands shake as she pours herself another serving of the vodka. Fucking hell this game isn't fun anymore.

"I'll join you this time." Alice breaks the silence as she leans forward and gracefully pours herself a shot of the vodka, she turns to look at me and I nod so she pours me one as well. All three of us throw our heads back and down it in one. It burns all the way down my throat and makes me shudder a little bit. I'm a Whiskey man usually.

"I'm going for a smoke." Bella announces, "I won't be a minute, help yourselves to whatever in the meantime." And so she walks out onto her balcony and plonks herself down on the chair. It had been raining hard all day, but the cloud had passed now leaving the sky clear and the air crisp.

I watch her as she sits down and looks up at the sky, she lights her cigarette but takes her time smoking it, like she's savouring every last second. She crosses her legs underneath her on the chair, like a kid in elementary school, and gnaws at the skin around her nails in between drags. When she finally extinguishes the stub, she takes a few moments to put her head in her hands, almost like she was praying. Then she stands up, stretches out her back, and heads back in.

When she walks through the door she's like a different person, all smiles as if that weird moment didn't just happen. She strides over to us with a lot more confidence, but none of it quite reaches her big, brown eyes, "Does anyone need a refill?" She asks, ever the good hostess.

When Alice nods, I watch her walk over to the kitchen. Correction, I watch her bum in those yoga pants as she walks over to the kitchen. She pulls the bottle out and pours Alice a fresh glass before opening the fridge back up to put the bottle back, "fuck it." She says, just loud enough for us to hear, and brings the bottle over to us, using that ass to close the fridge door.

Alice laughs as always and I can see her jiggling around in her seat, this night has most definitely taken a turn neither of us expected.

The next couple of hours are spent drinking and laughing, I sit on the side lines a bit more and just watch the both of them interact. Bella is an expert at deflecting away from any and all personal questions, and Alice is becoming too drunk to even notice as she switches between her glass of wine and the occasional shot of vodka. Bella puts some music on with a small remote that was on the coffee table, and I continue to help myself to beers from the fridge. I can't help but watch her - she laughs in all the right places, she smiles at all the right moments, she does some hand gestures, she purses her mouth, her cheeks are even flush from the alcohol, she does all of the correct movements… but none of it reach her eyes, they stay sad and stoic throughout. What is your story, Bella Swan?

"Edward will go with you." The mention of my name pulls me out of my thoughts.

"I'll go to what?" I ask.

"Bella has to third wheel a date on Tuesday," they both giggle, "she wanted me to join her so she doesn't feel like such a gooseberry, but it's parents evening at the school. You'll go won't you?"

Well that certainly puts me on the spot. I try to think clearly about my answer, but clearly and alcohol don't really mix. My brain fogs as I try to think of some excuse, but I come up with nothing, "sure." My mouth says before my brain even has a chance to stop it.

"Thanks." Bella says to me, "do you want to write your number down for me so I can text you the details?"

"Have you got a pen and paper?"

"Over on the desk." She tells me, pointing to the corner of mess.

I stand up, clenching my legs as I do to avoid toppling right back over. Shit that vodka clearly went right to my head. I stroll over slowly and look down to find what I need. Damn, this must be the only corner of the house that truly is Bella. There's forms and sheets everywhere, it looks like she's tried to organise them into neat piles and then given up half way through. I slyly try to read bits and pieces as I lean across and grab a pen and sticky note. '_Purchase of the company', 'foreclosure purchase', 'majority shareholder, 'silent partner', 'large investment needed' _and lots and lots of very big numbers. I write my number out and stick it on her open laptop screen. It must be touch screen because it flashes up asking for her log in details. The background picture is her and some blonde haired guys, he's got one arm wrapped around her back and one in the crook of her leg as she leans right back with one leg in the air, chugging a bottle of champagne. She's wearing a tight fitting, gold, sleeveless dress with green tinsel draped over her shoulders, and damn those curves. It looks like some sort of gala with 'Price investments' written over the white board behind them. Note to self: google that later.

"Right, Alice, we better call a taxi." I say as I walk back to the pair of them who are snickering away like school girls. She looks up at me and sighs, but I know she knows I'm right.

OoOoOoO

_Beep Beep Beep_

What is that cursed sound?

_Beep Beep Beep_

Fucking alarm clock.

I reach out and smack the top if it without even opening my eyes. I am not ready for today. I roll onto my side and wrap my duvet around myself tighter. What I would do to spend the entire day in bed right now. My head feels thick and when I open my eyes, just a crack, everything spins.

So now not only does my entire body ache from a week of hard work, but my head now hurts too. Do I hate myself or something? I'm 29 but I have the body of someone three times my age. Or at least it feels like that.

Very slowly I lift myself up so I'm sitting against the pillows on my bed.

"Yes." I mutter to myself in nothing but pure ecstasy as I realise that yesterday me was thinking of today me. There it was, in all its glory, a pint of refreshing water. I pick it up and down it in one.

I can hear Alice in the shower already, always the early bird, even with a killer hangover. I look over at my alarm clock - 10.50am. Maybe not such an early bird after all then.

I drag myself out of bed, ignoring the pain, and throw on some jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. Next stop: the kitchen for coffee. I could probably drink a bucket or two of it right now.

Is it weird that Alice and I live together at our age? Probably. But do I care? No. We're both single, don't have kids, and don't take up much room, so this is a great way to save money _and _have to deal with someone's annoying habits without the benefit of having sex with them. We're pretty used to each other after five years, though.

What I do find weird is the fact that I'm a builder, and yet this place is shit. It's literally falling apart in places, yet I'm always so tired from working that it's the least of my issues. I could do with ripping out the entire kitchen and the bathroom and redoing them both, but that's just time, effort and money. At least the coffee machine works.

"Put enough on for me." Alice says as she comes up behind me, making me jump, before gliding over to the dining room table and plonking herself down on one of the rickety, old chairs.

I put the coffee maker on and walk to the fridge to grab the milk. I smile at the hundreds of pictures we have stuck to it - all hand drawn by our artist nice and nephew. Well, my niece and nephew. My sister Rosalie and her husband Emmett have two kids, four and three. They're the most perfect little family which is sickening seeing as I have five years on her. She's even younger than Alice by two years. Little Elliott and Emily are adorable though. My favourite picture, the one that gets pride of place on the fridge, is a picture Elliott drew in school of his family - it has him and his sister, his mum and dad next to them looking pretty normal, then me with my head literally in the clouds I'm so tall, and Alice shorter than everyone else in the picture. Her height is a sore point for her, which is exactly why it gets the best spot on the fridge.

The coffee is ready behind me so I get on with preparing them before joining Alice at the table.

"How are you feeling this morning?" She asks me.

"Like shit," I tell her, "and you?"

"Same," she pauses for thought, "but I'm glad we went."

"Same." I agree. Then we both sit in silence as we sip our coffees, waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

OoOoO

It takes about six cups of coffee and too many hours of binge watching trash TV to finally be ready for the day. That's the thing with alcohol, it's borrowed happiness. You borrow the happiness from tomorrow's self. Alice and I just sit chilling with some pizza as we see what rich celebrity family now has a reality TV show. Oh how nice life would be with that amount of money.

As morning very quickly turns into mid afternoon, Alice heads out to do some Puzzling. I'm not feeling up for it today, so stay home to wallow.

But fuck, my car. It's at Bella's place.

If it's 3pm now, it'll be getting dark in just over an hour.

I groan, not really wanting to move but knowing that I'm going to have to. If I don't do it today, the task will just piss all over my Sunday instead. I need at least one day of non hangover rest before another week of hard work.

I walk into my pokey bedroom and change into some jeans before pulling my socks, boots and coat on. Because we never intended for the both of us to move, Alice selected this place with the intention of having the big room for herself and then converting the smaller room into her office for making books, planning lessons, and eventually writing her own plays. But then I came along and shit all over that. She marks books and plans lessons in our falling to bits kitchen and I don't think she's even attempted to write a play in the last four years. I'm lucky she loves me, or else I'd be well and truly screwed.

With another groan I stand up and leave - at least a walk will clear my mind. I estimate the walk to take about an hour, give or take, and it's quite a nice walk through the woods.

I leave the house and cross the road to the opening of the forest, thankfully I've learnt to navigate through them quite well in my time here - though I don't walk half as much as I used to. It was a massive change from Seattle with all the bright lights and busy city streets, but I've grown to love it over time.

When I first moved here I was an angry mess, I didn't want to see or talk to anyone. I hid away in that tiny little bedroom for far too long. My life had no direction - I'd lost my house, my fiance, and my job all in a few blinks of an eye. But us Cullens are pretty incredible at picking ourselves back up, dusting ourselves off, and getting on with life. Stiff upper lip, as they'd say across the pond.

I started off working for Sam, a man who took pity on me and gave me a job brushing up bricks whilst he did some building work. Over time he started to give me more and more responsibility and taught me everything he knew in the end, but then he retired. I felt like I was back to square one again, but then he loaned me some money to build up my own company and so I did. Cullen Construction. It's kind of my baby, I have three employees now and I'd do anything for them. But it's starting to get a bit old now. I'm not a builder, I never was. I worked at a bar in Seattle, and that wasn't my thing either. To be honest I still haven't found my 'thing', not like Alice with her career that she adores. I'm just winging it and seeing how far it gets me.

The rain starts to pour down, I pull my hood up to protect me from it. It may be the end of January with less leaves on the trees, but at least those branches take the brunt of the sudden downpour.

I just want sun.

I haven't been anywhere hot and sunny in about three years now. The last place I went was Texas and man the heat was incredible. It bounces off of the sidewalks and fills the air around, much like the rain does here.

One day, Edward, one day.

The steep incline takes it out of my tired body more than I was expecting it to, but I'm almost there now. Almost there.

I leave the cover of the trees and enter the clearing where Bella lives. I have a perfect view into her apartment from here with all that glass.

Oh shit.

Fuck.

This is awkward.

There she, strutting around her apartment, in nothing but her white underwear.

It looks like she hasn't noticed me yet, she looks too busy, shouting down the phone at someone with such an intensity it's fascinating. Every time I see Bella, I see a new side to her. She looks incredible today - her legs are as perfectly shaped as I'd imagined, leading to that fantastic ass that peeks out from her panties. Her hair cascades down her back as she runs her hands through it over and over. I'm not sure how much I'm actually seeing, and how much I'm just filling in the blanks because of the distance.

She walks close to the glass and I duck behind a tree to hide. Wow I'm a creeper. I can see her rub her hand down her face as she pauses, then she nods and continues pacing around her home.

I contemplate turning around and walking home, but no - I really need my car.

Taking in a deep breath, I dart to door before she has the chance to look out and see me, and press the buzzer. I wait for a minute and hear nothing, so I press it again.

This time I hear a voice on the other side, "who is it?" she asks me.

"It's Edward, I need my car."

As soon as I say it I realise I'm a fucking idiot. I have my car keys in my pocket, I could have just jumped in and driven away without her ever knowing I'd been here.

Maybe I was just looking for an excuse to see her again?

No, that's stupid.

The door buzzes and I let myself in, it's too late to turn back now anyway so I may as well talk to her.

As she lets me in she mouths 'sorry' and tries to finish up her phone call. She's thrown some clothes on now, much to my disappointment.

"I know Mike, I know. I'll be back later this week for a few days. I promise, yeah? I have to go but I'll speak to you later." She hangs up abruptly.

"Long distance relationships must suck, huh?" I ask her, putting two and two together. Her screensaver had to be this Mike guy. Again, I find myself weirdly disappointed.

She frowns, "I'm not in one. A relationship, I mean."

"Who was that then?" I enquire.

She raises her brows at me, she seems more at ease now, as if her phone call has calmed her down even if they were shouting at each other, "You're too nosy for your own good."

Damn she's good at deflecting. How do I come back from that?

"I just thought I'd let you know I'd picked the car up so you didn't think it had been stolen." I say, trying to reason my being there.

She smirks, "my dad was the chief of police here for over twenty years. I don't think there was a single case of grand theft auto in that entire time."

"Okay you got me," I put my hands up and laugh, "maybe I just wanted to say hi."

I can instantly see her guards go back up, her body tenses up and the light drops from her eyes, "well hi." she says.

We stand in an awkward silence for what feels like forever but in reality was probably only a few seconds. She fidgets on the spot and gnaws at her bottom lip.

"I best get going." I say with a wave. She says nothing at all so I turn and leave.

"I'll see you soon, thanks for letting me know." She squeaks as I walk down the stairs. Shit this woman is confusing.

I get into my car, turn the heating up on full, and make the winding drive home. I turn the radio on full blast to try and forget about the weird one minute encounter I'd just had.

The second I get in I go straight to bed. My aching body and tired mind need a break, I haven't had a holiday in too long. It may be early still, but I crash the second my head hits the pillow.

OoOoO

"Can you sweep that there for me?" I ask Seth as I focus on cleaning another area.

"Sure thing, boss." He says.

It's Tuesday afternoon and we've just finished building Mrs Brown's outbuilding for her. The other two have gone home because it's getting kind of late, but Seth and I continued because fuck coming back here tomorrow to finish the job.

Mrs Brown wasn't an easy customer, she watched us like a hawk, always screeched at us to mind her flowers which were half dead any way, and spent the whole day peeping out of her window through these little beady eyes of hers.

I'd told the boys that if we got it finished today, we wouldn't have to start until twelve tomorrow and they jumped at the chance. They've worked harder than I've ever seen them work today, but eventually Dylan and Danny had to go home because they've both got families of their own.

I think it was also because they're just as sick of Mrs Brown as I am. We'd spent a couple days last week here, as well as yesterday. Now we just have this final bit of cleaning up to do and we can go home. It cannot come soon enough, my bed is calling me.

It's 6.30pm by the time we finally finish. I drop Seth home because I'm not letting him walk home in this weather after working a twelve hour day, and then I pick up a sad looking microwave meal for one on my way home.

All I want to do is shower, eat, and then crash in bed my usual weeknight routine. The others probably think I offered the half day tomorrow for their benefit, when in reality it was a much more selfish decision. I'm fucking exhausted. I'm always fucking exhausted. I feel like I'm still recovering from the Friday night of drinking because it made it feel like I didn't have two days off.

I walk into the house feeling like I have buckets of cement on my feet, all of my limbs feel heavy and achy from working hard in such cold, miserable weather. I walk over to the kitchen to dump my meal on the side when I see the note Alice has left out for me:

_Don't forget you're meeting Bella and co at The Anchor tonight at 8_

Fuck. She knows me too well.

Was that tonight?

Fuck.

It's 7.15 now.

So, instead of my calm, relaxing evening I was planning, I jump in the shower for a quick wash before scoffing down my microwave lasagne whilst it's still molten hot, I can't even taste it over the burn I feel in my mouth and down my throat.

I run into my bedroom and chuck on the first dress shirt and jeans I can find, the sniff test having to do because I definitely haven't done my washing recently, then chuck on my boots and coat and leave once more. Thank fuck for the half day tomorrow.

I choose to walk to the bar, knowing how drunk she got me last time and not wanting to risk having to collect my car tomorrow.

Half running now, I get to the bar at 8.15pm. Better late than never I suppose?

I walk into the dive bar and spot her sat at a tall table with a busty strawberry blonde girl and a tanned guy wearing a shirt so tight you could see every one of his muscles. Damn he's ripped. She hasn't spotted me yet, so I take a moment to take it all in - she looks so at ease and happy. The happiest I think I've ever seen her as she smacks tan guy on the arm and shares such an intense look with him that I'm surprised strawberry blonde hasn't launched herself across the table to claw Bella's eyes out.

"Sorry I'm late." I say when I finally do decide to interrupt the party.

ZzZzZzZ

**A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know what you think. **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for sticking with this guys - I know the start is kinda slow but I have big plans for this story! Thanks to SunflowerFran for being so kind about this story, and thanks to everyone else who has started to follow this as well :)**

**I must really love you guys with all these updates!**

AaAaAaA

**Edward POV**

"Hey." the tanned bloke says as he extends his arm out for me to shake his hand. His handshake is firm and his hands are almost as callous as mine.

I've just walked over to the group Bella is sat with in the bar to introduce myself to them. I may as well place nice.

Bella looks at me with her mouth agape, eyes as wild as usual, "shit!" she proclaims, "this is my friend Edward. I forgot to mention that he was joining us."

So you're telling me I could have stayed at home then. Great.

"I'm Lucy," blondie beams at me, "and this is Jake." She puts her arm around his shoulder, staking her claim maybe?

"Lovely to meet you all," I drawl, "drinks?" Everyone nods and tells me their orders so I head over to the bar. Meeting new people is always so damn awkward, I'd rather do it with a drink in hand.

I'm stood there for a couple of minutes before I feel her presence next to me, "sorry I forgot."

I turn my top half to look at her, leaning on the bar, "to tell you the truth, so did I."

She meets my gaze and smiles up at me with a quirk to the corner of her lips, before turning back to the bar and leaning her forearms on it, "Thanks for coming. I was starting to feel less like a third wheel, and more like a spare tyre thrown in the back of the shed."

"That's love for you, eh? Gross and overrated." She looks up at me again and this time shakes her head, but she still flashes me a look at those pearly white teeth as she smiles. And what was that noise? Was Bella Swan actually laughing out loud at something I said? How much has she had to drink already?

The barman comes over and takes our drinks order, just before I'm about to pay Bella gives her credit card to him, "I've got this round." She tells me. I'm not going to complain.

Drinks now in hand we make our way back to the table. The place is pretty much dead tonight, what with it being a miserable Tuesday. You've got the usual bar flys sat on the stools, hard liquor in one hand, the other hand sprawled out on the bar. I wonder how long they've been there for, probably since the place opened judging by the state of them. There's a few other tables that are occupied, I recognise a few of the men from a rival building firm at one table still in their work gear, something my team and I reserve for the last Friday of each month. The rest are obviously a result of online dating - some people look quite chatty, some look bored, I can see one swiping on his phone as his date chatters away to him, and some look downright horrified at the fact they've been catfished.

And then there's the four of us. Jake knows Lucy (obviously) and Bella, Bella knows Jake and I, I know Bella, and Lucy knows Jake (obviously). It's a bit of a weird concoction, but it seems to be working.

Blondie is that over the top kind of sweet, like Alice but even worse. She's the sort to get eaten alive in a big city, but in a small town like this she'd the bell of the ball.

Jake is just as nice. He's from the reservation, La Push, a couple hours away, but met Lucy at this very bar almost a year ago. He's made it clear to me in a not so subtle way how protective he is of Bella. Not that he has anything to worry about, her hot and cold attitude is enough to make any guy with sense run for the hills.

Bella's the one that puzzling me the most. I feel like I'm seeing the real her this evening. She's laughing and joking and seems totally at ease with the company around her. She spends most of her time talking to Jake who has her crying with laughter at times as she touches his arm with ease, whilst I make small talk with Lucy.

"So how do you two know each other?" I interrupt Jake's story that I wasn't really listening to, once again my mouth opening before my brain gives it permission.

He gives Bella a shit eating grin before looking over to me, "Oh Bells and I go way back. We basically grew up together."

"You two are too cute," Lucy says, slapping Jake on the arm, "Jake's phone used to go off at all hours of the night when Bella was in New York, yet I don't think he ever missed a call."

"I'm lucky to have him." Bella says with the brightest light in her eyes. She says it in a lighthearted manner, but I can sense a harder undertone to it.

Jake laughs, "you guys need to stop it before my head grows even bigger," apparently both he and Bella are good at deflection as he changes the subject with ease, "how's Mike anyway?" He direct the question to Bella.

My curiosity grows - that's the laptop background guy, I'm sure of it.

"He's all good, or at least as good as he can be. Never stops working that guy." Bella has a certain level of admiration and respect in her voice, and I'm almost jealous.

"Neither do you, Bells." Jake laughs and she grins back.

Sensing her guards down with Jake by her side, I decide to push my luck, "so is he your business partner or something?"

"Something like that." She gives me a tight lipped smile, apparently they're not down enough yet.

"Business partner? He's her employee," Jake informs us all, "you don't need to be so modest, Bells."

Lucy, whose face is creased in thought, pipes up, "Mike Newton? Are you talking about Mike Newton?"

Jake and Bella nod. Note to self: google him later, and finally google that other thing, too.

"Oh he was such a sweetie! We used to go to Church every Sunday. But then, you know," NO I don't know - tell me! "But anyway, you really helped him out there Bella."

"I know talent when I see it." Bella shrugs before changing the conversation to Baseball.

The four of us now talk, laugh and converse together whilst I see the bottom of too many beer bottles. The company is surprisingly great and lighthearted, something very different to my previous interactions with Bella the enigma.

When the bar bell rings signalling last call, we all wrap our winter wear around ourselves and head out.

"See you Bells." Jake says, giving Bella a massive hug, "it was nice to meet you Edward." He says to me, pulling me into one of his hugs which definitely catches me off guard. Hugs from Lucy follow before the two of them walk off in the other direction, hand in hand.

"And then there were two," Bella says, rocking back and forth on her heels, "is there even a taxi rank in Forks?"

I snort, "I think there's about three taxi drivers here, and Dave has gone back to Seattle because his mum is sick."

"I take that as a no then." She quips.

"It's a pretty solid no."

With a sigh Bella pulls out her phone, tapping away, before ringing out. She wanders around in large circles and it's so cold we can both see our breaths fog in front of us. Unsure of whether she wants me to wait with her or not, I lean against a lamp post awkwardly. She's intriguing to watch - her face is so expressive and her hand gestures so over the top it's incredible. Sometimes she seems to wear her heart on her sleeve, then other times she keeps it locked away in a titanium vault.

She storms over to me after her phone call, "It's over an hour wait for a taxi. An hour! One's finished for the night, and one is on his way back from dropping someone off a few towns over. When are you guys going to get Uber, man?" She shakes her head at me and walks over to a bench.

I walk over and stand in front of her, "would you like me to stay with you?" In my head I want her to say no, it's cold out and I need some sleep.

"I can't ask you to do that." She says to me, removing one of her winter gloves so she can gnaw at her fingers.

"You're not asking, I'm offering."

"Would you mind?" She asks, shining her massive brown puppy dog eyes at me.

Yes, yes, yes I mind, "no of course not." I confirm, joining her on the bench that instantly makes my ass feel numb from the cold, "but you should put your glove back on, it's only going to get colder as we wait."

She smiles at me quickly before turning away and putting her glove back on. We sit in silence as we watch the stragglers leave the bar. One couple can't even wait until they get home before he pins her up against the wall and starts to make out with her. From where we're sat you can actually see them grinding against one another and it's so gross yet neither of us seem to be able to take our eyes off of the shit show. Dry humping in between some dumpsters, keeping it classy as always, Forks. The woman starts to moan as the guy picks her up and holds her against him, but then he stumbles and they both smack to the concrete floor.

Eventually even they stagger off, zig zagging in all different directions and almost walking into a badly placed lamp post as they shout and sing and cackle to one another.

I turn to Bella to ask her how long the taxi would be when I notice she's shivering badly and her teeth are actually chattering like they do in the cartoons, "do you want to come back and wait at mine? I only live around the corner."

Her head turns to mine in a flash, fear riddling her expression. What the fuck, man? Why is she scared of me? It's almost unnerving.

"N-no it's okay. If you're cold I don't mind waiting on my own." She stutters, I'm not sure if it's through cold or fear.

I try to give her a look that expressed how stupid she was being, "God Bella, nothing like that. I live with Alice."

"You do?"

"Yeah. So do you want to come and warm up at mine and wait?" I ask. Her expression is still nervous, but she slowly nods and follows my lead as I stand up and start to stride towards my house.

We walk in silence, Bella keeping a few steps behind me for some reason. I even have to turn around a few times to make sure she's still there.

When we finally arrive I feel embarrassed about letting her in. Compared to her apartment, this place is ugly as shit. I almost wish I had sorted it all out and redecorated all that time ago.

Should have, would have, could have. Too late now.

Bella thanks me as I open the door for her, ushering her in to Casa Del Cullen.

Alice likes to run this place hot twenty-four hours a day, so the heat that hits us is instant as we walk into the sitting room. I clear some magazines and paperwork off of the couch making room for Bella to sit down. I do feel slightly embarrassed that it's a threadbear purple thing that was here when we arrived, but Bella doesn't even seem to notice. Alice is long since asleep but that girl could sleep through a hurricane, so I have no doubt that she will also sleep through this late night visitor.

I go to sit down next to her before remembering my hosting manners, "would you like a drink?"

"I'm good thanks."

But I can see she's still freezing, so decide to make two hot chocolates anyway. If she doesn't drink hers, that's simply more for me.

As I potter around the kitchen putting some milk and water to boil on the stove, I can overhear her conversation on the phone. I guess it's the taxi driver because she does not sound best pleased.

Absolutely exhausted I watch the stove, waiting for the liquid to bubble and boil. As soon as it does, I turn the gas off and pour the drink into two mugs. I throw a blanket that's on the back of one of the chairs over my arm and walk back to Bella.

"Here." I say, handing her a steaming mug.

"Thanks." She smiles at me, wrapping her tiny hands around it. I think I definitely made the right choice. I then throw her the blanket, which she instantly wraps around her shoulders.

I turn the TV on, not that I hold out much hope for Tuesday late night TV, but we settle on some trash reality show which always seems to be on. Something light hearted for the pair of us.

After a few minutes Bella angles her body towards me, "thanks for letting me come over."

In that moment she looks so innocent, yet slightly bewildered, and it catches me off guard, "no problem."

"The taxi is running late. He's claiming he's caught in traffic but he's probably just stopped for some food."

"I'm not going to kick you out, Bella. He can turn up when he turns up."

Our eyes meet and she gives me another small smile in thanks.

We sit in silence for a while, watching one overly dramatic scene after another play out before us. We both seem to relax more as time goes on, stretching out over the lumpy sofa. I even hear her give out a few small chuckles at some of the more ridiculous scenes.

And then I feel her head hit my shoulder, surprised at the physical contact initiated from her, I look down to see what her expression can tell me. Was it one of comfortable friendship? Did she now see me the same way she sees Jake - like a caring brother? Or was it because she saw me as something more? The thoughts race through my head as I try to pinpoint exactly what I hope to see.

Ah, she's asleep. That explains it.

Doing my best to not jolt her awake, I slowly maneuver from underneath her before scooping her up in my arms. She fits perfectly, which is weird. A host would never let their guest sleep on an uncomfy old sofa, right?

I creep through the house until I'm in my bedroom, then awkwardly try to move my duvet whilst she's still bundled in my arms. I thank the gods that I'd washed the bedding this weekend for the first time in too long, and place her on top of my bed. She stretches out and moans a little as I pull the duvet on top of her, well and truly out for the count.

Looking around my room I panic a bit and quietly try to throw some of my used boxers and dirty washing into my wardrobe, out of sight out of mind. If I'd left them out, she'd probably think she'd woken up in the bedroom of some randy teenage boy. And then I turn the light out and leave her.

I walk back to the sitting room in a zombie like state, it's now gone one in the morning and I'm exhausted. I see Bella's phone buzzing and answer it, knowing it'll be the taxi driver. I explain that he's no longer needed and, after a bit of shouting at me for time wasting, he rings off and I lie down on the sofa, throwing the blanket over myself.

I decide to myself that today has been a good day.

I'm asleep pretty much as soon as my head hits the couch.

OoOoOoO

"AHHHHH!" A blood curdling scream rings out throughout the house.

What the fuck?

I grab my phone, it's 5am.

Following the noise I rush to my bedroom, Alice gets to the door at about the same time and we burst in.

"What the?" Alice says as she runs over to Bella who's sat up in my bed. Her eyes are wild and I can visibly see her chest heave with laboured breaths as her eyes dart around the room. What the fuck? Alice places her arms around Bella's shoulders as she kneels on the bed beside her, talking quietly into her ear in that soothing voice of hers.

"Are you okay?" I ask from the doorway, terrified at the events taking place in my own bedroom.

Only Alice is the one to answer me, not Bella, "Water, Edward. Get us water."

Happy with a job to do, I dash out of the bedroom and sprint to the kitchen. I grab a tumbler out of the cupboard and fill it to the brim, "fuck!" I say to myself, hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline coursing through me.

I run back to the bedroom and place the water down on the side. Bella is still breathing heavily, eyes focusing on nothing in particular. Alice gestures for me to hand her the glass and so I pick it back up and do just that.

"It's a panic attack." She tells me, matter of fact.

"Can I do anything to help?" I ask, I reach out to rub Bella's shoulder but she flinches at my touch so I take as many steps back from her as the small room would allow. She was hot to the touch and definitely sweaty.

Alice ignores my question and focuses on Bella instead, grabbing her hand and placing it around the glass, then helping her bring it to her lips to take a sip. Alice is just like my mum, unbelievably gentle, kind and caring with a voice that could calm wild horses.

"Why don't you come and sleep in my bed?" Alice asks Bella, who nods in response. Ever so slowly, Alice takes her hand and pulls her off of my bed before leading her out of the room, talking to her softly the entire time.

I hear then reach Alice's room, then turn to look around my own.

What the fuck just happened?

I feel a rage bubble within me and I don't even know why. Who am I angry at? It's not Bella, is it me? But how was I supposed to know she'd wake up like that?

"Fuck." I shout out again, kicking the corner of my bed and then instantly regretting it. I slam my door, turn the light off, and get into bed.

Sleep doesn't come so easily this time. I lie awake for what feels like an eternity, tonight's events running through my mind. Unsure on where exactly to direct my anger, I focus it on everything: this shitty town, this shitty house, my shitty job, and that shitty Mike - whoever the fuck he is.

OoOoO

I don't know exactly what time I managed to drift off, but by the time I wake up my body does not feel rested at all. I sit up in bed, my head once again thuming. There's a note slid under my door.

I jump up to read it.

Took Bells home and went to work. See you later x

Shit what time is it?

11.30am.

I text the guys to let them know I won't be coming into work today, but I trust them and they know what they're doing. Lack of sleep I can deal with, but my fucking emotions are out of control right now. Confusion is definitely top of the list, but there's also a deeper down, more primal feeling there as well but I can't explain exactly what it is.

I stumble to the sitting room to grab my phone before going straight back to bed.

Today is not my day, I can just tell.

I open google on my phone and begin to browse. Yes, a distraction will help.

Mike Newton I type in. Maybe the distraction thing wasn't worth it.

And wow google does not disappoint!

The top result is an article from the Wallstreet journal, documenting his rise to the top.

Micheal Newton comes from a small town in Washington famous for the amount of rainfall it has and not a lot else. Like many who come to New York, he had a dream to make it. Unlike most of those people, he was lucky enough to have the backing of someone already at the top of their game. Employed by the owner of Price Investments, he quickly proved he had the knowledge and the know how to make it on the New York financial scene, so rose quickly through the ranks, taking over many branches of the business in little time. Said to be the confidant of the elusive business owner, Micheal Newton is certainly one to watch.

The small segment is next to a massive picture of the guy, confirming my suspicions on who he is and increasing my intrigue on Price Investments. He's stood there in that annoying side on, arms crossed, face turned to the camera pose. His piercing blue eyes stare off of my phone screen at me and his suit screams money.

Quite enough of that.

I close the tab and open another one to look up Price Investments, quickly finding their official website. I find certain phrases and words jumping out at me,

Trust us to make a return on your investment.

Private business sector.

Do you need investment in your company?

The whole thing screams Shark Tank at me as I continue to scan through it.

Bella wasn't kidding when she said her job would make us fall asleep.

But at least it all makes sense now. Or at least I think it does.

Shit, Bella.

I can't help but wonder if she's okay. If I found last night scary, she must have found it fucking terrifying.

Stretching, I jump out of bed and head to the shower. Seeing as I have the day off now, I may as well pay her a visit to make sure she's okay.

ZzZzZ

**A/N: Just a fair warning, any and all finance knowledge I have comes from Wolf of Wall Street where I spent more time looking at Leo's face than paying attention to what they actually said. This means that what is said in this story will more than likely NOT be accurate. I have tried to do a bit of research, but damn that stuff is confusing. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm so sorry for rushing through updates. I know it was only supposed to be twice a week, but I'm soo excited about where this story is going to go that all I want to do is write, write, write! The best bit is, I bet none of you can guess what's going to happen. **

**Just a rough estimate because someone PMd me to ask, I can imagine this fic will end up being between 30-40 chapters. But who knows? Could be more, could be less. **

AaAaAaA

**Bella POV**

Stupid. Luggage. Ahh.

I'm too tired for this shit after last night. But Mike is a whiny pain in the ass.

Dragging my luggage down the stairs without knocking a wheel off has never been a talent of mine. So many of my cases have ended up in suitcase heaven through that fate, but I swore to Mike that I'd look after this one after he bought me it for Christmas. It was a Louis Vuitton case, because of course Mike is a brand whore. I probably could have bought a hundred TJ Maxx cases for the same price. And if I did buy a suitcase at this price, I would want it to pack itself AND fly me to my destination.

God I hope the timeshare I bought him in the Seychelles causes him as much stress as this case does me.

Finally getting to the bottom of the stairs, I wheel my case across the gravel (which it also fucking protests at), and chuck it into the back of my car. Stupid case.

Right, is that everything? I hope so.

I jog back up the stairs to lock up, running late as per usual. But I've got a flight to catch, because New York is waiting for me.

I get back down to the bottom and lock that door behind me, too. It's not until I turn around to face my car that I actually spot him.

He's stood there looking as handsome as usual. Today he's looking rather fancy with black jeans, a blue shirt and a dark grey woolen trench coat. His hair is tousled and I can see the bags under his eyes, which are all my fault of course. They're the only imperfection on his otherwise perfect face.

"Hey." I call over to him, unsure of why the hell he's stood outside my home.

"Hi." He says back. He shifts his weight from one leg to the other and just stares at me.

I frown at him, "Can I help at all? Or do you just enjoy standing outside of people's houses? You'll get a reputation for that, you know."

I shakes his head and looks down, by I spy a smile creeping across his face, "I just wanted to check that you were okay." He says, looking back up at me.

I shrug, "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

Shit, fuck, damn. I was hoping last night would never come back up in conversation again. I can feel my toes curl in embarrassment.

He starts to walk closer to me, but hesitates about half way and stops, choosing instead to grip the back of his neck, "last night you seemed," he pauses, as if trying to find the right words, "a little upset."

Thankfully I'd prepared for this moment just on the off chance, "It was just a bad dream. I'm sorry I overreacted and all that, I didn't mean to scare you and Alice."

He quirks his eyebrows at me, "bad dream?"

"Yes." I confirm.

He shakes his head and starts walking back towards his car, "alright, whatever you say."

He doesn't believe me. I knew he wouldn't believe me. How on earth does he read me so well? It actually kind of scares me. The only people who can read me are Jake and Mike, and that took them years of practise. Yet Edward has known me for what? Five minutes?

I see him start to get in his car, and for some weird reason I don't want him to go.

"Hey Edward." I blurt out without really having anything to follow it up with. Whoops.

"Yeah?" He turns to face me, hand still on his car door.

Think, Bella, think… "Jake mentioned doing something, just the four of us or even the five of us soon. I'm in New York for the next few days but possibly early next week if you're game?"

He gives me a puzzled look as he gives me an answer, "sure. I'm game. Maybe next time I see you, you can actually start telling the truth for once."

And then he jumps in his car and leaves. Just like that. The fucker. I take a few moments to gain my composure before getting in my car and speeding off down the same road he's just taken.

The more I drive, the angrier I become.

What the fuck was he on about? How dare he come to _my _house and start talking to me like that! And what does he mean, tell him the truth? He doesn't even know me. Why the hell should I tell him anything? And why does he have any right to know?

But fuck.

What if he's found out about me? What if he knows?

I hit the steering wheel with the top of my wrist. Angry tears start to pool in the corners of my eyes and my heart starts to pound.

I thought I was doing well in Forks, I'd been there for a while settling in and everything seemed like it was going okay, but then Nosy McEdward had to get involved and fuck it all up of course.

I rev my engine and start to pick up speed as I follow my way along the wide, country road. Me engine starts to protest with the speed in which I'm going so I check my speedometer.

"Fuck." I mutter, easing my foot off of the gas and choosing to pull into the ditch on the side of the road until I'd calmed myself down.

Dad used to tell me horrifying stories about speeders, fuck being part of one of those statistics.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket with shaking hands, I rage text Edward. We've hardly communicated via text, only when I sent him the details of last night, but he deserves the full wrath of Bella Swan right now. Plus I need to know what he fucking knows and who he's fucking told.

**What did you mean about telling the truth?**

I fingers speed across my keyboard with fury.

Thankfully it doesn't take him long to respond.

**I'd just like some truth from you is all. **

The cheek of it!

**What do you think I'm lying about? And why do you think my life is any of your business? **

**You freaked out in my home, Bella. In my bed! I'd like to know why. Really why**

The audacity of this man. I didn't put myself in his fucking bed, _he_ put me there! _He_ invited me back to his, _he_ made me a hot chocolate which made me sleepy, _he_ offered to wait with me in the first place.

**Fuck you. **

I text back my short reply before turning my phone off and throwing it in the passenger footwell.

And then I just sit and cry it all out.

I cry because my therapist was right. I wasn't ready to come back here.

I cry because mental health issues fucking suck.

I cry because fuck it, it feels nice to get my emotions out there.

The rage dissipates as quickly as it came.

But the tears remain.

I shakily turn my car back on and carry on driving further and further away from Forks, but this time at a much safer speed.

OoOoO

The flight to New York was a smooth one, but by the time I arrive I'm exhausted. I all but fall into Mike's arms when I see him waiting there for me at the gates.

"You came to pick me up in person, huh?"

He laughs, "You weren't answering your calls, I needed to make sure you weren't dead."

Shit, I had kept my phone off hadn't I.

With the pleasantries over, Mike goes straight into business mode.

As he drones on and on all the way to the car we have waiting for us outside, I turn my phone back on and check for messages.

There's a few from Mike asking me if I'm dead, not important.

Jake has text me to have a good trip, what a sweetheart.

And then there's a bunch of messages from Edward.

**What are you on about?**

**What have I done to upset you?**

**What is your problem?**

**Bella pick up**

**Are you OK?**

**I don't care if you're ignoring me, text me to let me know you're okay **

Then there was even a text from Alice.

**Hey Bells. Ed's a bit worried about you. All feelings aside, can you let me know if you're okay please?**

Oops.

I can let him stew over his actions for a little bit longer, instead of replying I slide my phone into my pocket and watch out of the window as we drive closer and closer to the city I love.

"What are you doing tonight?" I ask Mike.

"Free as a bird. Kind of." He says.

"Let's go out." It was a statement rather than a question.

He sighs, "We're jam packed with meetings tomorrow. I'd love to Bells, just like old times, but I need to turn in early."

I spend the rest of the ride with my arms crossed, facing the window in a strop. I may not be a baby any more, but that doesn't mean I can't act like one from time to time. I can hear Mike laughing away next to me, he's used to this kind of behaviour by now.

OoOoO

One of my favourite things to do is sit at the bar alone. Yes, occasionally I'll get creepy old white guys trying to buy me drinks, but it was a fair price to pay to do an activity I enjoy.

I'd let Mike move into my apartment on the upper east side when I'd gone to Forks, something to encourage me to follow through with my plan I suppose. It meant that I was spending the night at the mid town Manhattan Hilton. But at least this place had a bar.

As exhausted as I felt, I couldn't stop myself from heading down after a quick shower and change of clothes. Sipping on martinis, I watched the world pass me by outside. I liked to make up stories for the people I saw strolling past - some were businessmen running late to their late night meeting with some people over on the other side of the world, others were young lovers on holiday in New York taking in the sights and intimidating skyscrapers as they walked about in awe. Others were just like me - lonely and a little bit sad.

Everyone has a past.

But then everyone has a future as well I suppose.

I play with the cocktail stick in my drink, stirring it around lazily with my finger, the other hand up by my mouth participating in my awful habit.

I had messaged a few of my old pals here asking if they wanted to meet up, but New York is fleeting. I may as well be dead now for all they care. A week is a month and a month is a year in New York time.

Sighing, I pull my phone out of my clutch bag and open the messages from Edward. I really ought to let him know I'm okay.

**All good. **

Quick, clear, and to the point. Plus he'll know I'm not dead now.

**I was worried about you. I'm sorry if I upset you earlier. **

He messaged me back almost instantly.

Do I reply, or do I leave it?

I go back to staring out of the window and stirring my drink before making a decision.

Fuck it.

**Let your sister know I'm okay please**

That'll do. I slip my phone back into my bag, out of sight out of mind. I'm too exhausted to get into another spat with Edward and too exhausted to try and make amends as well. He can sit on it for a while first.

I order another drink from the bar and silently curse Mike for not joining me. I'll make him pay for it tomorrow night, he won't have an excuse to escape me then.

OoOoO

"So as you can see, we have increased profits by 76% this year alone by putting one of our coaches in place. We have found them to be of great value to our company and they would be an asset to yours as well. All we ask in return-" bla bla bla, Mike drones on and on to the room of suits as he flicks through his powerpoint presentation.

He could sell ice to an eskimo, that guy. But only if he truly believed that the ice was something that could help them. It's hard to find people like that around here, and it's the reason I hired him in the first place. Most of New York is filled with snakes and failures, and we both like to think of ourselves as being in our own little category. We're the anomalies. We've done well through our honesty and integrity. Something that doesn't really happen behind closed doors around here. There's no seedy deals done in the private rooms of strip clubs, and there's no 'if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' kind of illegal dealings that the district is rife with. Being like this is a double edged sword, it's what makes us stand out and why we do so well, but we'll never be right at the top with values like that.

I like where we are though.

And I would never be here without Mike.

We started off in a small back office just outside of New York. I had a dream, and I dragged him into it in return for a percentage of the profits - kind of a commission based role. He was making pennies to start with, and now he's making more than he could ever dream of. He believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself, and now we're here.

Anywhere on Wall Street would be lucky to have him, but he's nothing if not loyal so he's stuck by my side through it all. Now he basically runs it - I just sit back and sign the forms he tells me to and answer the emails I have to.

I guess he lives for his work and his career and I kind of just don't anymore.

His passion is inspiring, and he carries that passion into all aspects of his life. He has the most beautiful fiance, a girl called Jessica. They were high school sweethearts, broke up for a while when he went off the rails, then they happened to bump into each other as she was sightseeing around Central Park. He took a few days off of work, the only time I think he ever has, and she ended up never leaving New York. And I couldn't be happier for them.

The day of meetings goes on from 7am this morning, all the way through until 10.30pm - I'm more exhausted than ever by the time they're over, but Mike has that buzz about him that I recognise all too well.

I recognise it because I used to get it as well. A day of success is invigorating. I don't take drugs, but I can imagine it's what being on a high feels like.

Now he wants to celebrate.

I'm still in my stuffy pant suit, but that doesn't matter. Not in New York. All of us business people go straight to the bar when we finish - either to drown our sorrows, or to celebrate our wins. People can be made in a day here, but they can be destroyed just as quickly.

With Mike on board I know that'll never happen to us.

"Drinks?" Mike asks me as we leave the building, a definite spring in his step.

"On me of course." I say back. The air is crisp and the lights of the city twinkle all around us. It may be difficult to see the stars from here what with the light pollution, but who need to see those when you literally live amongst man made ones?

The doorman hails us a cab and so we jump in, the world our oyster.

Mike speaks on the phone to a few different people as we head to our favourite bar, an old Irish pub tucked away down a side street. It's a bit off the beaten track, but it's why we love it so much. This is where we go to celebrate.

Mike jumps out of the cab the second we pull up to our destination, I pay the driver and follow him in, laughing as we link arms into our old hang out.

The music is always loud here, and I love it. An old Irish folk band play in the corner as they sing songs with some of the dirtiest lyrics I've ever heard.

Everyone in the bar is in hysterics as we drink more and more. Mike keeps his hand on the small of my back, something he does to ward off unwanted attention from other men in the vicinity. It's one of the things I love so much about this man - he's so kind, so caring, I'd trust him with my life.

He knows all about my story. I know all about his. We both threw ourselves into the business in an attempt to forget about our problems, and in the process we both helped each other.

The thing with Irish folk songs is they're often repetitive, meaning that even if you've never heard the song before, you can quite easily sing along by the second verse.

It was something Mike and I learnt when we first found ourselves drunkenly stumbling into the pub. But now, now we know every word from the get go.

We never brought anyone else here, none of our other 'friends' knew about this place. This is where Mike and I came to celebrate without anyone else in the world to think about.

It's 5am by the time I'm stumbling back to my hotel room. I hate to say it, but it's pretty standard practise here. Especially if you live in the city and don't have to commute too far.

OoOoO

I walk into Mike's office at 9am on Friday morning, today wearing a tight pencil skirt and blue blouse. Of course he's already here working hard, he always is.

"Did you need me for anything else?" I ask him.

"Uuuh, yeeah…" He trails off, head in his computer, "there's some papers I need you to sign." He taps some papers to the side of him, not taking his eyes off the screen.

I sit myself down on the edge of his desk, swinging my legs as my feet don't quite touch the floor. It feels nice to get some pressure off the balls of my feet, since spending time in Forks I've gotten used to trainers and boots so these heels are killing me. Especially after our dancing last night.

I pick a pen up off of the desk and start to briefly read through the papers before signing my name on the dotted lines.

By the time I finish, I can feel Mike's eyes on the back of my neck.

"What do you want?" I ask without turning around.

"I'm just trying to work things out." He says.

"Anything I can help with?"

"Yeah," he pauses, which is totally not like Mike so I turn to face him, "I'm just trying to work out why you've moved back to that shitty little town that did nothing but take a giant dump all over the both of us, and why you've left the City that's given us all this." He gestures around his office, and I get what he's saying.

I look him in the eye and slowly shake my head, "I honestly don't know."

"Want to go puzzle in Central Park?" He asks, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair because he knows what my answer will be.

"You puzzle now do you?" I laugh as I follow him out the door.

That's the other thing I love about Mike, he knows when to leave it.

There's another handsome man I know that could learn from Mike in that regard.

OoOoO

Leaving New York is never easy, but it has to be done. I made my bed.

I get back to Forks early Saturday evening, I was supposed to be back yesterday but couldn't help extending my trip by a day. I needed my Mike time.

The apartment feels empty and quiet all over again.

What to do, what to do.

I strut about in my New York clothes still - heeled boots, wide legged grey trousers with a smart shirt and matching grey blazer. I'm not quite ready to get changed out of them just yet. I know I need to shower because aeroplanes are basically just a tin of condensed flatulence, but fuck it I've smelt worse at other times.

I walk over to the kitchen feeling a sense of power from the clothes I'm wearing and pour myself a small glass of white wine. My outfit feeling too classy to opt for the beer.

Taking a small swig, I turn the radio on just for some noise - I'm sick of hearing my footsteps echo.

I sit down on the coach, unsure of what to do next. I still have the New York adrenaline running through my veins.

Fuck it.

I start a text chain.

**Hey guys anyone free tonight? I've got drink at mine if anyone wants to come over**

I send it to Alice, Jake, Lucy, and urgh, Edward. I couldn't exactly invite Alice without him.

**I'd love to but a few of us puzzlers are meeting at the bar tonight. Sorry sweetie :(**

Damn it. I refuse to be a third wheel in my own home. I blame that on why I'm so upset with Alice's text.

**Let's make it a party then! I'll grab some more drink and you can all come over**

Am I going to regret this? Probably.

**Oh Bella you're the best! We'll see you at about 7.30?**

**Sweet Bells. Me and Lucy will be there too**

No reply from Edward, oh well.

With it being 6pm already I put the glass of wine back down and head back out to my car, thankful I'd only managed one small sip.

By the time I get to the grocery store and back and lug the bags of nibbles and alcohol up the stairs, it's 7.20pm. Fuck. The shower will have to wait.

I haphazardly chuck all of the paperwork from my desk into the drawer to make it look presentable, pull some bowls out of the cupboard and fill with with chips and popcorn and put them on the dining room table, and throw the alcohol in the fridge.

Just as I'm closing the fridge door, the buzzer goes. Dashing across the room I let them come in without checking who it is.

Damn I'm relaxed tonight.

As Jake and Lucy walk in I feel my face genuinely brighten up. I give them both massive hugs before returning to the kitchen to grab my glass of wine. Jake knows the place now, so he helps himself to a beer and pours Lucy a gin and tonic.

"You're looking sharp, Bells." Jake tells me as he leans against the island kitchen, arm lazily draped around Lucy.

"I was just about to say that! You look really beautiful. Do you wear that for work?" Lucy asks.

"Yeah well the last minute party plan means I get to be gross and not change."

Before they can continue their questioning, the buzzer goes again. I wonder if all the puzzlers will turn up together. And also how many strangers I'm about to have in my house.

"Bella!" Alice sings as she bounds through the door, giving me a hug. I tower over her now I have my heels on.

She's followed by a familiar face or two as well as a few strangers I don't recognise.

"Help yourself to whatever." I tell them as they walk through my home. I know that with Jake there nothing bad will go down, and I trust Alice to not hang around with rif raf who would steal from me.

Still no Edward.

"Thank you so much for having us." Alice smiles as she links her arm with mine and walks me to the kitchen where she pours herself a wine and tops up my glass.

"No worries at all," I tell her, "is anyone else coming?"

"Just a few more. I hope that's okay."

"Totally fine."

Alice's good mood is infectious as she flits around the party, I've let her take over as hostess as she makes sure everyone has drinks and takes their coats.

Just as she's finished with that lot, the door rings again. Alice is the one to answer and she's also the one to greet each and every one as they walk through the door.

I love everything about her. Her confidence, her smiles, her whole attitude.

My house now has about twenty people in it. Most are puzzlers, but Jake also asked if he could invite a few of his friend which I willingly said yes to. It's the least I can do after all he's done for me.

Still no Edward though.

I become the wallflower of my own party, the whole of Forks knowing everyone but me. I feel safe this way though, more comfortable. I get to people watch and it's not even through a window this time.

Jake has started to help Alice with the hosting, he introduces himself and Lucy to all those who don't know them, and instantly becomes best friends with them. He's great like that.

There is one creep who keeps looking over at me, though. Giving me that leery look I hate.

My door buzzes again and this time I answer it because Alice and Jake are otherwise occupied.

I let in whomever it is, not really caring anymore, and there he is.

"Hey Bella. I hope you don't mind but I've brought along Seth."

"No problem." I say, letting them both walk past me. I close the door behind them and return back to my corner with my wine in hand.

Edward looks as good as usual in his dark blue jeans and slightly creased button down shirt. His friend looks younger than he is, around about twenty, but is dressed similarly. He has dark brown hair and tanned skin.

"Hey girl." I hear from beside me. Eww it's the creep. He's got light brown hair that's slicked back either by too much hair gel or grease. Either way it's gross. He's wearing skinny black jeans and a tshirt with a stupid pun on it. I hate puns.

"Hi." I say quickly, before walking into the room, my time being a wallflower abruptly ending because of creep.

Alice pulls me into conversation right away with the glasses guy I remember from the first time I met them all. He seems to be a bit more talkative now he has some drink in him, much like me.

I laugh and smile in all the right places, but can never quite settle into the easy conversation because I keep seeing creep guy looking at me in my peripheral.

I notice Edward go up to him and clap him on the back, leaning in close to his face and speaking at him, his other arm outstretched with a beer bottle in it.

He looks up and notices me staring at him. Fuck.

He claps creep on the back again and walks right over to me.

"Bella, would you like to join me on the balcony?"

Not really seeing any other option, I follow him out.

"Are you okay?" He asks me, his features showing me just how concerned he is. I feel a pang of guilt in my stomach. I caused this.

I smile at him, "I'm fine." I tell him, because I honestly am right now.

He runs his hand through his hair, "I'm sorry if I upset you the other day. It was never my intention to."

"I know it wasn't," this honesty thing is so much easier after a few glasses of strong wine, "am I'm sorry for overreacting. I was on my way to the airport so felt a bit-"

"You don't have to explain yourself," He interrupts, "you don't owe me that."

His words throw me off and confuse me about him even further, "thanks."

"But you can always talk to me." I see something in his eyes, something I don't understand.

He goes to touch my shoulder but I flinch away, "don't touch me," I shake my head and look at him, "I don't like it."

He puts his hands up in the air but holds my eye contact, "that's fine. Do you want to carry on this conversation inside? You're shivering."

I nod and we head back in, he stays close to me but not too close, which I'm thankful for.

We plonk ourselves down onto the sofa and both end up in different conversations, me with Lucy on my side, whilst he chats to Seth on his side. Lucy and I joke about Jake the hostess with the mostest, who truly seems to have hit it off with Alice, and Edward seems to be talking about work from what I could catch from their conversation. How dull, it's a party for goodness sake.

I can still see creepy in my peripheral, which again makes me feel incredibly uneasy. He looks at me as if I'm his next meal, but I don't want to cause a scene and kick him out for looking at me funny - that would just seem weird. I've also decided that I quite like hosting parties, and feel that would put a dampener on the whole situation.

Suddenly I feel a warm breath on my neck and freeze, I turn slowly and am very slightly comforted by the fact that it's Edward and not anybody else, "Creepy over there won't take his eyes off you."

I sigh, "tell me about it."

"Want me to ask him to leave?" Edward asks me, "I won't take no for an answer."

I find it weird that I was just having this very conversation with my inner monologue, "I don't want to cause a scene."

"Fuck that!" Edward raises his voice, "it's your party."

"No." I tell him firmly.

He shakes his head and goes back to his conversation with Seth, but not even ten minutes later I feel that breath on my neck again, "I have another idea."

"Go on." I say, creeper is really getting on my nerves after all.

"Only if your comfortable with it, though." This makes me look right at him. His face is an open book, his brow slightly creased and his jaw in a hard line.

"What is it?" My heart starts to thump, but I have to admit that I am curious.

"Put your legs over my thighs," he pauses to gauge my reaction before continuing, "it's hardly any touching, it's on your terms so you can move them back off whenever you want, and all you need to do is slouch a bit more on the sofa to do it. It should keep creepy at bay."

Can I do this? He's not much more than a stranger to me. I don't trust him like I do Mike or Jake, he's not in the circle of trust yet and may never be. I begin to shake my head when I notice creepy making a beeline for me. Would this be the lesser of two evils? Without putting too much thought into it, I scooch a little closer to Edward on the couch and bring my legs up, placing my feet so that they rest just on the other side of his thighs.

Taking it all in his stride, he gives creeper a look that makes him walk in the other direction. We watch him as he walks around the outskirts of the room a couple times, waiting for me to move, but I don't. Giving us both a look, he walks over to the food table, stuffs his pockets full of chips, and leaves.

But I don't move my legs.

It's comfortable like this, okay? My feet hurt, and his legs are warm.

Also, by being angled towards him, I can join in the conversation with Edward and Seth and make sure they're not being party poopers by talking about work stuff all night.

As the night continues, none of us move. The conversation is enjoyable lighthearted and without creeper staring at me, I'm actually having a good time.

At one point Edward brings one of his hands down to rest on my legs, it throws me for a second but the way he did it just felt so completely natural that I let him keep it there. He had big hands, working hands, and I like them.

Eventually everyone began to head home, meaning I had to remove myself from my all too comfortable position.

I was thankful that the four of my favourite Forks people stay to help me clean up, Jake and Lucy leaving before Alice and Edward.

But in the end I'm left alone again. Feeling empty.

I almost wish Alice and Edward had stayed. The bad dreams didn't seem half as bad when I was sharing a bed with Alice.

What would they have been like if I'd shared a bed with Edward?

No Bella, don't be so stupid.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Some people choose to spend their week off going on holiday, some choose to spend it with family. Me? I choose to write. Or at least attempt to.**

AaAaAaA

**Edward POV**

_Three Months Later_

My life has settled into a new little routine since Bella's arrival all that time ago.

Tuesday nights at the bar with the five of us laughing and joking around the table until the early hours of the morning, and Friday nights spent at Bella's house, again the five of us laughing and joking around until the early hours of the morning. Sometimes we listen to music, sometimes we play card games, and once we ended up playing a drunken game of charades.

I actually find myself looking forward to these days more than anything else in the world. Good company, great friends, and Bella.

She's a lot more relaxed around me now. I still find myself pining for the attention she devotes to Jacob, but maybe one day I'll get there. She touches him just fine, and he can give her hugs without warning and knock his shoulder into hers with no explanation needed.

With everyone else she's a bit less… comfortable. She'll hug Alice and Lucy, but even those feel a bit forced. I haven't bothered to even try, not since her party all that time ago. She made her wishes clear, so I'll leave the rest up to her.

We even got to meet Mike a few weeks back. To start with I was hesitant, who really wants to spend time with a suit guy?

But he was surprisingly nice. He and Lucy were well acquainted through growing up in the same small town, and the way he doted on Bella was strange to witness - he was so full of respect and admiration, and totally humble about his success.

I still don't quite understand what the pair of them do, he openly admitted that he was under strict instructions from Bella to keep his mouth shut when I did try to pry, I did attempt to push it further but that man is loyal to the bone. How annoying.

Bella and I still don't really talk much outside of those evenings with the gang. She spends time in New York every other week, Mike insisting he needs to steal her away from Forks, and other than that there's a few occasions where we've both been puzzling, but that's the extent of it.

So why is she still on my mind?

She has made it abundantly clear that she wants nothing to do with me. She spends half of her time ignoring me, then the other half hiding behind jokes and toilet humour.

I still don't get Bella Swan.

She doesn't lie to us, but she doesn't give us much information to go on either. I know that Jake knows everything, I can see it in the way he acts around her. He always has one eye on Bella and one eye on everything else, when the gang gets a little loud or rowdy, he'll always turn to her and quietly ask her if she's okay, those damn eyes of his full of concern. But just like Mike, he's loyal to the bone.

I start to wonder if Bella is some sort of witch and has these two under her spell. That is how much I've thought about this, and how little I have to go on.

I also started to notice weird little quirks that she has. She will rarely enter town, and if she does she keeps her eyes to the ground and hurries about.

Three weeks ago we were all at the bar and Bella turned up late. She walked a few feet into the bar, looked around, gave her rabbit in headlight eyes, and dashed back out. Followed right away by Jacob of course. I watched them through the window, Jake bending down to get on Bella's eye level, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye. He nodded as she spoke, then pulled her into a hug - it was different to his usual bear hug though, with this one he squeezed her to his body and just held her for a while.

That night we ended up Bellaless and Jakeless. Jake came back in to tell us she wasn't feeling too great, which was a lie, and then shortly after he whispered something to Lucy and left as well. It doesn't take a genius to guess that he'd run straight to her.

By the time Friday rolled around, Bella was all sweetness and light one more. She never brought up what happened on the Tuesday, and none of us pried.

Alice tells me it's none of my business, that we should just take Bella as she is and if she wants to tell us any more at any point, that's when we can listen and understand.

But I don't have the patience of Alice. I don't have the understanding either. It's why she's a better person than I'll ever be, she didn't even bring up the Bella in my bed fiasco ever again. Something I still can't get off my mind.

I can also tell that I'm not Jake's favourite person.

He's never rude to me, he never calls me out or does anything nasty, but he's never overly nice either and he always keeps a beady eye on me. I don't think we've ever had a conversation with just the two of us, whereas he and Alice became best friends almost instantly. I think he's just wary of me. But then I guess I'm wary of him.

But anyway, it's Tuesday, and time to head to the bar.

Alice and I walk over together. It's slightly warmer in Forks now that spring has arrived, but I still wouldn't class this as nice weather. It's just coat but no gloves cold instead.

We're the first to arrive so get the first round in - G&T for Lucy, white wine for Alice, and beer for the rest of us.

By the time we get back to our table, the troops have arrived. Lucy and Bella laugh together with noses and cheeks reddened by the elements outside, Jake grabs their coats for them and goes to hang them up.

And so this Tuesday carries on as most Tuesdays do, friendly chatter where we talk about our work, Alice moans about a couple of her students, Lucy bitches about a few customers, and Bella talks about New York.

"Jake and I were looking at holidays," Lucy tells her whilst side eyeing her boyfriend, "but this one here doesn't like planes."

"They're not natural, they're just metal hurtling through the air, and if we were supposed to fly we'd be born with wings." He reasons.

"Don't be so stupid, Jake! If we were supposed to get around at sixty miles per hour, we'd be born with wheels right?" Bella laughs.

He shakes his head, "it's not the same."

And so the two of them begin to bicker like brother and sister as the sun fully disappears from the sky, being replaced by the moon and stars.

Alice, ever the peacemaker, decides to interject, "why don't the two of you just drive somewhere? Down to California or something."

"You know there's this road trip my Dad and I had all planned out," Bella tells us, "I can give you the details of it if you like."

Bella getting personal? If I leave the bar now, will there be a unicorn in the parking lot as well?

"I could do with a holiday." Alice sighs.

Slowly we all mumble our agreements. A holiday is something I could always do with. One day, one day.

"Why don't we all do a roadtrip then?" Bella asks.

Jacob laughs, "that would be great Bells, but I doubt it would be comfortable one with us all squeezed into a car. I wouldn't even want to drive to yours with us all sat on each other's laps."

"Fine," She snipes back, "how about if I find a car big enough for all of us, we go?"

"You're on." Jacob laughs.

A road trip _would_ be fun. It's just a shame my crappy old car probably wouldn't even make it out of the state.

OoOoO

**I need your help**

It's Bella.

**Are you ok? Are you safe?**

I quickly formulate my reply. What situation could be so bad that she has to text me?

**Hard to explain. Can you come over?**

I look around the empty sitting room, it's Sunday morning and Alice has already gone out to meet some friends. I've been procrastinating all day to avoid doing all the laundry that's mounted up, but that can wait for another day now.

**Be right there**

Feeling like an over protective parent, I jump in my car and leave right away. Something pretty serious must have happened for Bella to be asking for my help. The girl can barely stand me most of the time.

Some ass hole in a silver BMW crawls along in front of me so I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, feeling antsy that I'm being kept away from Bella for even longer.

"Come on, come on." I mutter under my breath, what the fuck is up with drivers these days?

Bella could have been robbed, she may have text me from the bathroom as an intruder stomped around her house, maybe she's injured and stuck…

And here I am, crawling along at a snail pace.

Eventually the fucking idiot turns off down a side rode, the driver looks about ninety which is no surpise to me. Bottle glasses and a hearing aid to boot.

Revving my engine, I speed past the indicating car and head up the hills to Bella.

Why hadn't she called Jake? Or even Alice?

And since when was this road so fucking long?

Eventually I'm able to speed into Bella's drive, chucking the car in park I dash out and run to her front door - which is open. Fuck.

"Bella? Bella!" I call as I run up the stairs as fast as my legs will let me.

"Oh hey Edward." She smiles at me as I charge in, she's sat on the sofa with her feet tucked underneath her, steaming mug of coffee in hand.

Trying to regain my breath, I lean against the door frame, "what's the problem?"

"There isn't a problem," she tells me, "coffee?" she uncurls her legs and slowly walks to the kitchen.

"But - but your text?" I question, the adrenaline begins to leave my body, "and yeah I'll take a coffee."

She busies herself grabbing a mug from the cupboard and pouring me a coffee, "yeah I need your help with something." Her back is toward me and her hair bounces around her back, gleaming in the soft light of her apartment.

"With what?" I ask, officially curious now.

"You're a builder, right?" She asks as she heads in my direction and hands me my drink, our hands touch and it's like a jolt of electricity goes through me. Her breath hitches so I know she felt it, too. She also doesn't instantly jump away from the fleeting touch like she usually does.

"Yeah…"

She grins, "then I'd like to hire you please."

This girl, I tell ya.

She looks so excited as she fidgets in front of me, biting her perfectly plump lower lip. She's wearing her figure hugging yoga pants I've grown to love on her, and a loose fitting tshirt.

"What's the project?" I ask. What sort of building work could she possibly need doing? Her apartment is practically brand new and she's never mentioned anything along these lines before.

Her brows crease slightly but she has a devilish look in her eyes, "it'll be easier if I show you. Bring your coffee."

She begins to walk out of her apartment and motions with her head for me to follow. I've never seen her look quite so… fun. She's got an evil grin on her face which I find my own face matching, even without more information to go on.

She leads me down to the gravel hard standing outside of the house, and then along the side and around the back to a double garage door. She grabs the handle and struggles with it, so I give her a helping hand opening it.

I take a look inside as she fumbles along the wall to find the light switch.

"A bus," I turn to stare at her, "you have a fucking bus in here." The garage is so huge it's more like a workshop, it's probably bigger than the whole of my house.

She once again bites her lip sheepishly, "yeah."

"Any particular reason you have one of these yellow monstrosities on your property? And what does it have to do with me being a builder?"

"It's big enough for five people to travel in."

"Well yeah it's a fucking bus, Bella. Still not seeing the relevance." Every time I think this woman can't confuse me anymore, she surprises me. And this is the biggest surprise yet.

"Well you're a builder, you can build stuff inside it," her expression loses some of it's mirth, that hint of fear returning to her eyes slightly, "I'd pay you of course."

I sigh and grip the back of my neck, "I build walls and outbuildings, I don't build the interior of buses."

She pauses and turns away from me, instead turning to look at her stupid yellow bus, "it was a stupid idea anyway," she kicks at some dirt on the garage floor, "sorry to waste your time."

She looks so small and dejected and just so damn vulnerable. It takes everything in my power to not go over and hug her tight and never let go.

With a sigh I start to circle the bus, kicking a tire, running my hand along the side of it. If I do it enough, she'll probably think I know shit about vehicles.

"Isn't Jacob a mechanic?" I ask her as I lean down and check the tire arches. What am I even looking for? I don't know.

"Yes, but there's nothing mechanically wrong with it."

"So what do you need doing with it?"

She follows me as I make my way further and further around the bus, "I need all the seats ripped out, some new ones put in, and maybe a small kitchen and shower added."

"You're a rubber tramp now?" I stand up straight and ask her.

She laughs at me, "I don't even know what that means, but I'm guessing not. Jake said we could do the road trip if I found a vehicle big enough for the five of us so I've been looking online and found this on Craigslist."

My mind rewinds back to the conversation we had at the bar almost a week ago. The one we'd all laughed off and taken as a joke.

Well, all but one of us apparently.

"Why do you want to do this road trip so bad?"

She shrugs her shoulders, ever the closed book. She's looks smaller than usual as she fiddles with the hem of her tshirt and fidgets on the spot.

Christ on a bike. I rub my face with my hands and sigh, "when do we start?"

Her eyes instantly flash to mine, a smile returning to her beautiful face, "you'll do it?"

"I'm no expert but there's no harm in trying," I reason to myself more than her, "on one condition though."

"Anything."

"I'll do it in the evenings after work and help on the weekends. I can't ask any of my boys to work that late so I'm going to need your help with it."

"Thank you Edward," she grins, "we'll need to use your tools but I've already researched it all - it doesn't look too hard. We have to pull everything out like the floor and seats, then we insulate, then we put the cabinets in, then we can do the floor, and voila - we have our campervan."

She leads me onto the bus as she looks up and down the aisle. This is the single most stupid thing I have ever agreed to do in my whole entire life. But for some inexplicable reason, I'm actually kind of excited.

"Oh but Edward, lets keep this our little secret. At least for now."

"Deal."

And for some strange reason, I'm not even mad that I've just waved goodbye to all of my evenings and weekends for the foreseeable future. Bella is happy, and somehow that's important to me.

So important, in fact, that I go home right away to pick up my tool kit. We can make a start this afternoon.

ZzZzZ

**A/N: I told you that nobody would guess it.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: What do you guys think? I hope you're enjoying the story so far!**

AaAaAaA

**Bella POV**

I've recently come to the realisation that I am a perv.

I have seen Edward every single day for the last week and a half.

And damn that ass.

He wears his work clothes when he comes over in the evenings, covered in cement and dirt. He smells of sweat and aftershave, and his hair is just as grimy as his clothes.

But he never stops. And I don't know why.

He talks me through what he's doing, before getting me to join in and help him. So far we've pulled everything out of the bus (it now sits heaped in the corner), and fully insulated the inside. The incredible craftsman that he is, he's fashioned the cabinets himself. He thinks there's another week or two of work left to do, and to be quite honest I'm tempted to get another bus just to keep him here.

To be quite honest, my attraction towards him absolutely terrifies me. I haven't so much as kissed a man in six years. The closest I've come to any action is getting measured by the sweet old lady in the lingerie shop. He's so confident and self assured, meanwhile I'm a jumpy, nervous mess.

"We best be finishing up soon." I tell him as he pokes his head around the corner of the bus to look at me.

It's Friday, Edward gave his team a half day and instead of enjoying his few extra hours of freedom, he was right over here to begin work. He even came over for an hour on Tuesday to potter around before going home to get ready for the bar.

But he's going to shower and get ready here today. Meaning he'll be naked. In my home.

A particularly steamy thought jumps into my mind as I wonder if he'll be wanting any company in that shower.

No, Bella. No.

He groans as he stands up and stretches out his back, his arms look amazing as his dirty white tshirt stretches around his muscles. They're the kind of arms you want to just have wrapped around you, picking you up, and pinning you up against…

No. Stop this.

Looks like I'm the one who needs a cold shower.

"Come on then." He says as he throws the tool he was working with back into his toolbox with a clank. He's good with his hands is Edward.

The thoughts than race through my mind are stupid anyway. Edward hardly even looks at me, only talks to me because of the bus, and would never dream of touching me.

Someone like busty beauty queen Lucy would be much more his type. More so than me anyway, no tits Bella.

Both lost in our own individual daydreams, we lock up the garage and head on back up to the apartment. That's quite enough work for one day.

"What's that smell?" Edward asks as he walks through the door.

"Oh no does it smell bad?" I ask as I follow up behind. We've been existing on microwave meals and take out since he's started coming by in the evenings, so I thought I'd actually attempt to cook for him this evening. It's the least I can do now he's refusing to take any payment for the work he's doing.

He spins around and looks at me, "No it smells really good - where have you ordered from today?"

"Seeing as there's only two take outs in the whole of Forks, and we've definitely become their most regular customers, I thought I'd cook something for you for a change."

He frowns at me and sniffs the air again, I feel my palms go all clammy as I wait for his response.

"Smells great, I can't wait to try it," He grins at me, "in the mean time where's your shower?"

I point him in the direction of my master bathroom, I've laid everything out for him ready like shower gel and fresh towels. I was scrubbing the place clean like a maniac this morning so I hope he appreciates it.

As he goes into the bathroom, I walk over to the kitchen to check on the food. I feel like I haven't cooked a proper meal in years so this is basically an all new territory for me. I'm keeping it simple with a creamy pasta bake I hope he likes.

What the fuck are you doing, Bella? The last time I was in New York, I almost didn't come back here.

Not after bumping into Mrs Green at the store.

She was so in my face, asking me how I was, asking me why I was here, asking who I'd met, etc. I gave her short answers in the hopes that she'd piss off, but she kept following me and following me.

She knows my story.

Everybody here does.

Well, apart from Alice and Edward.

I know that Jake has told Lucy to keep her mouth shut about what she knows, whatever it is she knows. So far she's been great. I occasionally see the look she gives me, like I'm an abandoned puppy that's been left out in the rain with no food, but I've learnt to just deal with it.

People in general are just terrible at dealing with things. Like when somebody close to you dies and people just give you that look that makes you want to go and kill yourself. They think they're helping the situation, but they're making it worse.

If everyone was like Jake the world would be a better place. He's been there for me for the two worst experiences of my life - and each time he's just let me cry on his shoulder, never pressing for answers or information, just letting my cry it out and give them to him in my own time. He was there when I needed to drink and pretend it wasn't happening, when I needed to let off steam by cliff jumping and riding his motorcycle, and when I just wanted to sit in silence and get a bit emotional.

He was my rock. He is my rock.

"Shit." I mutter as the fire alarm starts to ring off above me, interrupting my thoughts. I turn the oven off and dart across to throw open the balcony doors.

"Everything alright?" Edward asks as he walks into the living space in nothing but his jeans and socks, rubbing his hair with a towel.

He's just as perfect as I'd imagined, an unwanted pang goes through my body and I have to clench my thighs together to stop an uncomfortable dampness forming.

"Mhmm." I mumble as I continue to look him up and down, he still has beads of water all over his chest. He has that perfect physique that comes from working hard outside all day, with abs just poking through on his slim torso. He widens up around his chest and shoulders and as he turns to walk back into the bathroom, I get a look at his perfect back. The dent of his spine, the way his muscles ripple just under his skin… No amount of thigh clenching will help me right now.

I take a few deep breaths to try and gain some composure before turning back to look at what mess I've created in the oven.

It actually doesn't look too bad - a bit crispy in places I'll admit, but I should be able to hide it when I dish it up.

I quickly head into my bedroom to get changed into something more clean as the food cools down.

What to wear, what to wear…

My eyes skim past all of the yoga pants I usually live in, I'm just not feeling them today. I consider a pair of black jeans with a nice top, but I don't feel like that'll cut it either.

Oh, what's this?

My eyes fall onto a black bodycon dress that sits just above my knee. It has a square neckline and thin shoulder straps. I bought it online intending to wear it in the office, but when it arrived it was a little too much on the sexy side for office wear.

Fuck it.

I pull it off the hanger and place it on my bed, deciding it would be best to change my underwear for this one, too. A nice strapless bra will do.

As I turn to look at myself in the full length mirror on my wardrobe, I wonder what the hell I'm doing. Much too sexy for a Friday night dinner, right? But I _do_ love the dress. And it seems to give me curves I didn't even know existed. It seems a shame to keep it hidden away at the back of my closet.

I decide to throw on my over sized, chunky knit cardigan to balance out the look a bit, and pull on a pair of my fluffy bed socks. This'll make it all look a bit more casual, right?

I leave my room before I can change my mind and by the time I'm back in the living area, Edward is already sat down on the couch solving some puzzles on his phone. Only this time he has his shirt on, shame really.

"Food will be two seconds." I tell him as I walk back over to the kitchen and start to dish up the food. I dish it up a bit upside down so the burnt side is at the bottom, before bringing them over to the dining table.

"Thanks, Bells." He says as he walks to the kitchen to grab some cutlery, bringing them over to the table. I love how comfortable he is here, I love how comfortable they all are here to be honest.

He pauses mid step to take me in, "you look wonderful, by the way."

We pass each other by as I walk back over, smiling the entire time at the compliment like a giggling school girl, "what are you drinking?"

"Shall we go with wine?"

I grab two large glasses and the bottle of white wine that I have chilling in the fridge. Does white wine go with chicken and bacon pasta? Let's hope so.

As we dig into our food, Edward makes a few noises and nods at me to show his appreciation of the food. I wouldn't say I'm the best cook in the world, but it's better than some of the greasy microwave meals we've been living on.

"So what are your plans for the bus? Is Jacob's birthday coming up or something?" Edward asks me.

I finish my mouthful of food before answering, "No, it's not that. Do you remember the other week when we said about going on that road trip? That we needed a vehicle big enough for the five of us?"

Edward clears his throat and places his fork down, doing all he can to make eye contact with me, "you do realise that was a joke, right? That Jacob was joking?"

"What? It wasn't a joke. Everyone was saying about needing a holiday, don't you remember? Jake was saying about disliking flying, then Alice said about a road trip, then we said we'd go if-"

"Bella," he interrupts, "nobody expected you to actually find something."

"What are you talking about?" I feel heat rush to my cheeks and I put my cutlery down, now feeling slightly queasy.

"Alice is a teacher, I run a business, Jake and Lucy work as well. Did you really think we'd all be able to take a few weeks off to drive a rusty old school bus through America?"

I can feel my face burn as humiliation runs through me.

I'm an idiot.

Such an idiot.

I stand up from the table, my chair scraping across the floors as I do so, and go and grab my emergency pack of cigarettes out of the cupboard and head out to the balcony. I grab the key from the inside and take it out with me, locking him in there and away from me.

I watch as he rises from the table and walks over to the balcony to join me, shaking the door handle to try and come out and join me. I turn away from him and instead lean on the railings and look at forest surrounding me. The green of the trees remind me of the green of his eyes.

Stop thinking like that.

I pull a cigarette out and slowly start to smoke it.

It's been a while, so I see stars when I close my eyes and have to fumble my way back to find my chair, refusing to turn and look toward my apartment. Toward him.

I'm a fucking joke.

Nothing but a joke to them. To him.

Let's all take advantage of the naive little rich girl, lets see what we can get her to waste her money on this time.

Why did he play along? Why did he come over and help me fix it up if we weren't going to do anything with it?

Humiliation is joined by rage, it courses through my veins like red hot steel.

I hate him.

How dare he embarrass me.

He's played for like a fool - here I was cooking for him as a thank you, and then he drops that bombshell. That it's all pointless anyway.

I was all but dreaming about the big reveal, when one Friday we were going to take them down to the garage and show them. I would then take them back up the the apartment after they'd oohed and ahhed at it enough, and show them the route we were going to take. They'd have been impressed with Edward, and also with me. It was all going to be perfect.

I feel the pull of New York, the escapism of it.

I reach for another cigarette mere seconds after I finish the first one. I wish I'd brought my wine out with me. And my phone.

I end up sitting and chain smoking for so long that my bum goes numb and I have to pull my cardigan tight around myself to keep warm.

Still raging, I storm back inside, still with a lit cigarette in my hand, and go to my bedroom. Pulling my bag down from the side, I grab my purse from it and walk over to where he's sat on the couch looking awkward as all hell.

"Here," I spit, throwing a load of notes at him, "for your time."

I pass by my glass of wine and instead grab the bottle before going back out on the balcony. Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

OoOoO

I know they're all inside now. I heard Jake's car pull up, and then Alice's. I can hear muffled conversation but can't make out any of the words clearly.

I'm still in my strop, and now feel too embarrassed to go back in as well.

I hear knocking on the glass so turn around slowly, it's Jake.

Sighing, I get out of my seat and let him out - he drags a chair with him that he pulls up right next to mine. He then turns back to the door and locks it behind us.

"What is it, Bells?"

"I'm sure you've already been informed."

He reaches out to touch me but I scoot away. I'm not in the mood for his sympathy.

"I don't know anything other than you've locked yourself out on the balcony with a bottle of wine and a pack of smokes."

"Don't lie to me." I snap.

"This hasn't got anything to do with it coming up to the anniversary of everything, has it?"

"Course not."

He speaks with a voice so thick with concern that I do feel a bit bad for snapping, but not bad enough to apologise, "then tell me what it is. Because all I know if you've got a guy in there pacing around with worry, he's got his cousin and Lucy trying to calm him, but I think the only thing that will is you going back in there."

I shake my head at him. I'm too ashamed.

"Do you want us all to leave?"

I shake my head again.

What do I want?

If only I knew.

I lean my head on Jake's shoulder and begin to cry. I don't know where the tears come from or why they're there, but he winds my arm around my shoulder and we just sit there.

I don't know how long we're sat there for, but Jake is like some sort of magnet. Like he absorbs all of my bad thoughts so I don't have them anymore.

"I think I want to go to my room for a bit, but please stay?" I turn to face him, "get everyone to stay. Don't let me bad mood ruin your night."

"But it's your house."

"I prefer it when it's full." I tell him honestly.

And it's true. Even if I'm not a part of it, my place feels better when other people are around to break the silence.

"What shall I tell them?" He asks.

I pause and think for a second, "just tell them that I'm not feeling too well."

With that, I unwind myself from Jacob and walk back inside.

"Bella-" I hear Edward call after me, but I ignore him and walk straight to my room. I can hear Jake explaining that I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and then he goes host mode and offers everyone drinks before turning the music on.

I crawl into bed, the pretty dress feeling like a stupid idea, and sit in the dark with just my thoughts for company.

I can hear them outside having fun, and as much as one part of me wants to go out and have fun with them, I can't bring myself to. It's too embarrassing. I'm in my late twenties and I'm still throwing moods like a little kid, only now they're exacerbated by the likes of cigarettes and alcohol.

Jacob's probably right. I always get a little unstable at this time of year.

I begin to drift off to sleep.

"_Oh man you look good." Edward says to me, eyeing me up like I'm his next meal. _

_I giggle, "and you're looking as handsome as ever." _

_And he is, in a perfectly fitted Tuxedo. He looks classically beautiful with his usually unruly hair slicked to one side with each individual hair in place, his green eyes stand out, surrounded by long, thick eyelashes. I look down at my own outfit, I'm wearing a blood red ballgown, it's a figure hugging number with a slit all the way up my thigh. I'm wearing matching gloves and can feel a pearl necklace around my neck. He smirks at me as he moves closer. _

_And closer. _

_And closer._

_Before I know it he's got me pinned up against the wall, holding my wrists above me head, as he crashed his lips to mine. The kiss is full of passion, and want, and need. He nibbles my bottom lip and before I know it his tounge is my mouth as he deepens the kiss even more._

_He moves his hands away from my wrists and instead grabs my ass so hard I'm sure it'll mark, he kisses down my neckline in just the right way as he picks me up. I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist as he crushes me against the wall._

_I can feel him, all of him. I throw my head back to allow him to kiss my neck better as he grinds against me, the friction building between us as he rubs against the thin material of my panties. _

_I don't care that we're in a public corridor, I don't care who stumbles upon us - all that matters is him and me and his lips on my neck and his erection rubbing against me in - oh - just the right way. _

"_Oh Edward." I cry out breathlessly. _

_But when I lower my head to kiss him again, it's not Edward. _

I sit up in bed, breathless and sweaty. My heart hammering against my chest like it does after every bad dream.

But that wasn't a bad dream. At least not to start with.

I'm wet not just from sweat this time.

What the fuck?

I hear knocking on my bedroom door.

Fuck, there's people here.

"W-who is it?" I stammer.

"Can I come in?" It's Edward. And he's the last person I want to see right now.

Well, one of them anyway.

"Please Bella?"

Fuck. I need to get thoughts in order.

"Okay."

The light that shines through the door as he opens it is almost blinding in its intensity. I'm thankful when he quickly closes it behind him. I feel his weight as he sits himself down carefully on the end of my bed.

"First things first are you okay?" He asks me quietly after we sit in total silence for a few minutes.

I take my time to respond, still feeling weird from my dream and the events of tonight, "I'm fine." I end up telling him.

"You need to start being honest with me." He tells me.

"Is that a requirement is it?"

"Yes," He snaps. I can tell he's trying to remain calm, but there's something bubbling under the surface, "yes it is Bella."

"But I don't want to." I tell him, at least that's honest.

"Please." He begs, which pisses me off and I don't quite know why.

"Have you ever considering why I may keep parts of my life a secret? Have you ever considered that maybe there are things I don't like to talk about? Things I don't want people to know about me? I mean I'm sure you won't be openly tell me _your _deepest darkest secrets." That sounded way more calm and reasonable in my head.

I can see the shadow of his form as he puts his head in his hands, his breathing is audible as he takes his time to respond, "none of my secrets cause me to have a panic attack in a stranger's bed, or lock myself on a balcony for hours, or go hot and cold and then hot again all in the space of five minutes. My secrets don't cause me to freak out over the smallest touch. Tell me what I'm doing wrong here, Bella. I literally had to sneak off after Jacob had had a few too many or else I'd have never have gotten close enough to ask. He's like your guard dog or something."

"Don't bring Jacob into this, he's looking out for me," I seethe before anything else, anger bubbling up inside my stomach which, when mixed with the bad dream, just makes everything ten times more confusing and I hate confusion, "I'm not obligated to tell you anything. And more than that, I just don't want to. Do you think you can just walk into my life and I'll be begging you to sit down and listen to all of my secrets?" My voice begins to rise more and more, "and what - do you think you can fix me or something?" I wish I could see his expression, read his eyes, but the non existent light makes it impossible, "the coy looks and pretending to care may work for all the other girls, but not me."

"Here's your money." He says as he stands up, throwing it on the floor in a way very similar to how I threw it at him earlier on this evening.

And then he leaves me alone, slamming my door behind him. I can hear my front door receive the same fate not even a minute later.

What the actual -

OoOoO

I waited for him on the Saturday, I got up early and sat on the couch all day just staring at the front door.

I waited on the Sunday, too. At midday I pinned a note on the door and went on down into the garage, getting on with sorting the bus by myself.

I thought maybe Monday evening he'd show up, that he'd have taken the weekend to cool down, but I don't see him then either. I spent another lonely evening in the garage.

I decide that I'm not going to the bar later. It'll be the first Tuesday I've missed. Instead I throw on my scruffy work clothes and head down to the garage to work late into the night on this damn bus I'll never use.

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**A/N: Oooh drama. Thank you so much to all of my followers and reviewers, you're all fantastic and it's massively appreciated :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'd just like to say welcome aboard to all of the new followers I seem to have gained overnight! I hope you enjoy the bumpy road that is this love story. Uploads will be slowed down slightly, no more two updates a night. But I won't be abandoning you all - you'll be getting at least three uploads a week. **

AaAaA

**Edward POV**

She didn't turn up on the first Tuesday.

On the Friday she told us all she was in New York.

But then on the Tuesday after, Jacob accidentally let slip that he'd seen her.

Why does she lie so much?

She's left the Puzzlers group chat now, the one that started all of this.

I should just forget about her, I need to forget about her.

There are other women in Forks, other women who would happily date me without throwing tantrums and treating me like a monster, they'd happily build a life with me and love me. So why is she still on my mind?

Alice wants to set me up on a date with one of the teachers at her school, she tells me it's time for me to start dating. That it'll be good for me or something.

But everytime I so much as think of dating, I see those deep, brown eyes flash through my mind. The intrigue I feel every time I'm around her rises to the surface of my brain. I just wish it didn't.

Work hasn't been too bad recently. With the weather being a bit more dry, I haven't come home every evening soaked to the skin. It still happens, a bit too often for my liking, but last week we had four dry days. Four!

With spring now in full force, and summer very slowly starting to creep up on us, I'm considering hiring a couple more guys. Summer is the busiest time of year for us, after all. And maybe with a few more people, I can sneak in a few more days off to deal with paperwork and all that fun stuff.

It's Thursday evening and I'm heading over to the diner for food. It's just one of those nights where even removing a microwave meal from its cardboard sleeve seems like too much effort.

I'm a full grown man, I can dine on my own.

When I reach the diner, it's Lucy that shows me to my seat.

"Hey Ed," She beams at me, leading me to my favourite window seat, "the usual?"

My usual being the somehow always overdone steak and fries.

"Yeah the usual." I smile at her, it's not her fault the food here is pants.

I look around the dingy interior of the place, it's a slow evening with only a few of the tables occupied. The two waitresses stand chatting to one another and the chef leans out of his little window to join in on the conversation. Yeah, it's definitely a slow evening.

Lucy brings my beer over to me and leaves me to sip away at my own pace.

It's pretty quickly followed by my food as she places the cutlery down beside my plate with a smile.

I cut into the all too rubbery steak and take a slow bite from it, it may not be the best but it's better than what I've been eating for the last few nights.

I honestly didn't realise how hungry I was until that first bite, but now I scoff the food down as quickly as possible, trying to fill that hole in my stomach. Too hungry to even savour the slightly off flavours.

Finishing up, I push my plate away from me and go back to nursing my beverage. So lost in thoughts about nothing that I hardly even notice when Lucy sits down across the table.

"Everything okay?" She asks me, pulling me out of my bubble.

"All good thanks." I smile, patting my stomach.

She continues to stare at me, "I wasn't talking about the food."

Then what was she talking about?

Although we've been associating with each other for a long while now, Lucy and I have never been that close. It's not that I dislike the girl, but she's just too… superficial for my liking. Too full of empty laughter and smiles that she makes just for the sake of it.

"I'm all good thanks." I tell her.

She sighs and looks over to the side at the other waitress who's now leaning against the chef's window, twirling a strand of hair around her finger and using her other hand to feel the chef's arm as he flexes his muscles for her. The waitress doesn't look a day over twenty one, where as the chef looks like he's in his forties at least. Gross.

"Are you missing her?"

Well I wasn't expecting that.

I take a healthy swig from my bottle and take my time to answer, "not really."

"I know I am." Lucy tells me.

"And why's that?" I challenge.

Why is everything about her? About poor little Bella who's thrown her toys out of the pram and decided she's too good to hang around with us now.

"Bella's good company," she smiles at me, her whole face lighting up as she does so, "and she's a good person."

"I haven't seen that side of her." I reason. I mean I hadn't, had I?

Lucy laughs at me softy and shakes her head a little, "then you're blind. She always buys the drinks, she always welcomes us into her home, she always tries to look after us when she can," I suppose that is true, or at least it was until a couple weeks back, "and she'd done a lot more that you don't know about."

Now I'm interested. I cock my head to the side and furrow my brows, "like what?"

"You know Mike, the blonde man we met who she works with in New York?" Her large curls bounce around her shoulders as she talks, leaning over the table towards me a bit more.

"Yes…" I say quizzically.

"She didn't have to help him, but she did," Lucy pauses, "Mike was clever in school, always top of the class. He has popular, good at sports, and good with people. But when he left school we went a bit awol. He moved to Seattle for a couple of years and when he came back he was addicted to drugs, jobless, and his parents barely wanted him living with him," Lucy leans right back away from me, eyes darting around the diner again, "when Bella came back for her dad's funeral she was devastated, as you would be, she and her dad were real close-"

"They can't have been that close if she moved over the other side of the country." I smirk, talking a few more gulps of my drink.

Lucy shakes her head at me, "they were close. Bella moved for other reasons. But as I was saying, she came back for the funeral and instead of just focusing on herself and her own sadness like I know I would have, she noticed Mike," she pauses again for a while this time, motioning for the other waitress to bring something over, "he was sat on the floor in the town square with a ripped jacket and clearly high from whatever he'd been smoking that day. She told him to get up and took him back to her dad's house to get cleaned up, all whilst the wake was taking place in the next room. She made him promise her he'd get clean, then booked him a flight to head to New York with her. They both left the next day and Mike has never looked back."

The waitress brings over two beer bottles and places them down in front of us.

"You're telling me suit man used to be an addict?"

Lucy laughs, the serious expression that clouded her face gone, "Suit man? Suit man? I'll tell him you said that."

Her laughter is infectious and I find a smile gracing my own lips.

"So that explains why Mike is like a loyal little puppy, but what about Jake?" I ask after she's drank half of the bottle. Maybe her alcohol consumption was my way in.

She purses her lips, deep in thought, "Jake is Jake. Their dads were friends for years so they've grown up with one another. He's loyal and protective of everyone he knows. Probably even you now," she laughs at the shocked expression on my face, "there's no big story to them. They're just childhood friends. Then when everything happened, she turned to him," the grin drops from her face now, "I guess that bonds you in a way nothing else ever will."

"What happened?"

"It's not my place to say." She shakes her head sadly.

Frustrated, I lean all the way back in my chair and grab the nape of my neck as I close my eyes. So close.

"I don't even know the details myself." She adds, as if trying to reason her avoidance of the truth.

"So tell me what you do know," I tell her as I open then, staring as deep as I can into those baby blue eyes of hers, "because all I know is that I cannot do a single thing right with that girl. She looks at me like I'm about to eat her, she jumps away from me as if I'm going to hurt her, then she closes down whenever we do have a moment and leaves me feeling like a fool."

There's something about Lucy's kind disposition that just makes me open up. She's the most impartial party that knows both Bella and I, and I guess I just needed someone to rant to. All my pent up stress fills the air around us.

Lucy taps the side of the table and looks down at her lap, "she joined Forks Highschool when she came back from Arizona. She was different from the rest of us girls, she'd seen more of the world, and that turned her into some kind of prize to be had," Lucy pauses and looks at me, "you can't repeat anything I say to you." Her eyes plead with me even more so than her words.

"I won't, I promise." I can feel my heart hammer in my chest. I'd have probably promised to do just about anything in this moment. I feel like I need to know.

Lucy nods as me, "The person who won her was the most popular guy at school. Everyone wanted to be like them. They were the high school sweethearts; holding hands in class, attending rallies together, acting all loved up on their lunch breaks, the whole lot. They continued their relationship when they left school and everyone thought they were it, that they would be together forever, the perfect small town love story," she stops talking for what feels like hours, I'm sat on the edge of my seat waiting for her to continue, "but he was a bad man. A very bad man." her brows crease and her entire demeanour changes, becoming so much more tense, "I only saw Bella for a few moments after they broke up as she walked to the car with her dad when I drove past. We were never close in high school, we barely spoke three words to each other. But she was a mess. I'd never seen someone like it before. Then the next thing I heard, she'd moved to New York City." She shrugs and sips her drinks.

"What happened to him?" I ask, gripping the beer bottle so tightly that I'm surprised it doesn't smash. My knuckles are white and I feel something red hot and pure bubble away in my chest. It may only be a little bit of information to go on, but I can begin to fill in the gaps.

"He skipped town not long after and nobody has heard from him since," she shakes her head, "the whole scandal was the talk of the town and everyone took sides. Most people took his because he was here for longer so he could alter the narrative, but they didn't see Bella. If they'd have seen her…" she murmurs the last bit to herself more than me. But then her whole demeanour changes, back to the lighthearted, smiley woman I knew her as, "but anyway, let me take your plate."

With that she jumps up, grabs my dirty dishes and the now empty bottles, and walks back to the kitchen.

I sit there for too long trying to process everything I've just been told. It was the most insight I'd had on Bella. I'm still hurt by the fact she didn't say anything to me, but I find myself understanding her reasoning a bit more now. I'd not told her about my ex, had I?

What did he do to her?

Poor Bella.

Lucy flicks her eyes towards me occasionally, giving me a knowing smile, as she cleans tables and helps the other customers.

"Fuck this." I mutter as I rise from my seat, throwing some notes down on the table. I wave to Lucy as I walk out the door, and go straight home.

The walk is a short one as I power walk my frustration out, not able to focus on anything. I want to know more, I _need _to know more. But the only person who can tell me now is Bella. And she's not talking to any of us.

"You're home late." Alice calls out from the sofa as I storm into the house.

"I'm not staying." I retort as I quickly get changed.

A long walk will help, because right now I have too much adrenaline coursing through my veins to do much else.

OoOoO

Friday brings another excuse from Bella, so Alice and I sit on the sofa and eat takeout instead.

"What's up?" She asks me through mouthfuls of her Kung Po Chicken.

I sigh, unable to hide anything from my cousin, "just got a lot on my mind."

"Would a date with Stacey help?" She asks me, bringing up that Geography teacher friend on hers again, "I showed her a picture of you and lets just say she was very impressed."

"No I'm good." I tell her, but she's already leaning across to show me pictures from this Stacey's social media.

She's pretty, I'll give her that. She's got blonde shoulder length hair, a nice smile, and pretty green eyes. She's got pictures of her sunning herself in a bikini on a beach, and pictures of her in her snowboarding gear up some mountain. She looks fun, like a real adventurer.

Even a few months ago I'd have probably let Alice persuade me to go on a date with her, but not right now. I have too much on my mind. What with work, hiring people, and Bella. Her brown eyes seem to spend a lot of time in my head at the minute.

"Oh but Edward…" She draws out the last half of my name, something she only does whens he knows she's fucked up.

"What?"

"I've already told her you'll meet her next Wednesday." She tells me.

Oh god no.

"Cancel it."

"No." she argues back.

"Cancel it, or I will." I tell her defiantly.

Alice looks at me, her expression steely. This woman can be so stubborn sometimes, "it'll be good for you."

I've learnt from experience that there is no winning against Alice when she gets that look in her eyes. If you try, she'll just wear you down until you agree anyway. I feel sorry for her future husband, "fine."

She squeals and claps like seal before throwing her arms around me.

I didn't promise her it would go anywhere because it most certainly won't. What can I even say to her? Hi I'm Edward, a man who's nearing thirty who still lives with his cousin. Oh and I'm fascinated by a girl who wants nothing to do with me.

OoOoO

Wednesday comes around all too quickly. I lug my broom around the work site, pissed off that I have that date tonight, and annoyed that Bella brain is going to stop me from enjoying it.

Alice has spent every second possible telling me all about the woman. She's travelled around Europe, spent time is New Zealand, and even taught English to kids in China for a year. She's twenty six, originally from Illinois, but moved here on a whim because she liked the scenery. She's only been here for a couple of months, around about the same time Alice started hassling me about her.

I wave the team off as we finish for the day and give Seth a ride home. This guy seems to look at me as some sort of hero and as much as I like the guy, it can get old pretty quick.

With the day done, I get home and jump in the shower. Washing all the grease, dirt, and grime from the day out of my hair and skin.

As I'm in my bedroom getting changed into a button down shirt and jeans, Alice knocks on my door.

"Do you want a lift down?" She asks me through the door.

"I'm good to drive." I tell her, it was only to the bar but if I'm driving I can't drink, which seems like a good idea.

She pauses but I can hear her shuffling around outside, "you promise you won't stand her up?"

Now the lift makes sense.

"Of course I won't." I tell her. I may be a dick at times, but I'd never do that to anyone.

I walk out of my room and throw my shoes on. Alice follows me as I do so. She's grinning at me like a cheshire cat. She doesn't speak, but she doesn't need to. The look on her face paints a thousand words.

"I'm off." I tell her, walking out of the front door and unlocking my car.

"Have fun!" She shouts from the doorway, waving me off as if I'm her kid on the first day of school.

Man I need to move out.

The drive takes no more than a couple minutes, one of the perks at living so close to the town centre. Not that it's much of a town.

When I enter the bar she's already sat down and waves at me as I enter.

"Stacey, right?" I ask as I get to the table, she nods, "Hi I'm Edward. Alice's cousin." As if she didn't already know exactly who I was.

She stands from her seat and gives me a quick hug, I ask her what she's drinking and head over to the bar.

"A vodka and coke and a sprite please." I tell the bartender who seems shocked I haven't gone for my usual bottle of beer.

I walk back over to the table and place the drinks down in front of Stacey. She's just as attractive in person with a little button nose and big green eyes.

"So tell me about yourself." I say to her as I get settled into my seat and remove my coat.

And oh boy does she.

She's the opposite to Bella in every way. Green eyes to brown eyes, blonde hair to brown hair, open to closed.

"...I worked there for just over a year. It was an enlightening experience, unlike anything I've ever seen in the US. The children were…"

She talks and talks and talks. I now feel like I too have spent just over a year teaching kids in China, and I too have travelled around Europe with nothing but what I kept in my backpack. It's all about spirituality and enlightenment and all that bullshit.

Don't get me wrong she's achieved some awesome stuff and seen some amazing sights, but I find myself bored of her stories after about forty five solid minutes of hearing them.

"What about you?" She asks me with a soft smile.

"What about me?" Lord I wish this soft drink was something stronger right about now.

She giggles, "what's your story? Have you done much travelling?"

"Ummm…" I begin, "I'm from Seattle but moved here with Alice a few years ago," I conveniently leave out my reason for moving, "my family and I used to go camping up in the mountains when I was younger, and we went to Disney World once when I was ten. We sometimes used to go to the beach for a day or two, but that's about it."

"Do you not holiday?" She asks me.

"No not really." I answer honestly, not feeling the need to defend my life choices to someone I only met this evening.

"Oh you really should!" she tells me, "even just travelling through America you can see so much. The world is…"

She spends the next twenty minutes explaining to me just how big the world is, as if I've never seen a fucking map. She quotes things like the world is a book and I'm only reading one page or some bullshit.

I can't say she's wrong, and she seems to come to life as she talks about all of her travelling adventures, but man I don't care.

Or maybe I'm just jealous. I'm nearing the big three o and my biggest story to date is my fiance fucking my boss. The rest of my stories revolve around building things in people's backyards, occasionally going for a walk in the woods, and trying to break the world record for most ready meals consumed in a week.

I come to a realisation that puts a dampner on the whole evening - I'm boring. I'm boring as fuck. I'm stuck in a small town where I've attempted to build some sort of life for myself.

Fuck.

As the date draws to a close, Stacey becomes more and more merry. She begins to reach across and touch my arm as she talks my ear off. Her touch is strange and her hands are cold.

As we do finally walk out of the bar, I offer to give her a lift home. She's drunk and stumbling every so slightly, whereas I'm sober as a judge.

She thanks me graciously as I lead her over to the car. She's wearing heels to accompany her black skinny jeans and sequined top, they definitely don't help her balance. With the heels she's about 5ft 8, and as she leans against me she just doesn't fit as well as another woman I know.

"Come on then." I say as I help her into the car, "you'll have to give me directions."

And so she does. She lives in the nicer area of town in a pretty big house. She's clearly done well for herself.

"Do you want to come inside?" She asks me as we pull up outside.

It's a tempting offer, sex with a hot blonde, but she's drunk. And I'm not, "That's probably not a good idea."

She pouts at me, "I just meant for a night cap. I have good whiskey. It's the aged stuff from Bushmills in Northern Ireland. The stuff you can only buy at the distillery."

Even more tempting. I tap my steering wheel as I make my decision.

"I've got work early, but thanks for the offer."

Her pout only deepens, "will I see you again?"

I give her a hollow laugh, "it's a small town. I'm sure we'll bump into each other."

She leans across the middle of the car and gives me a hug, cold hands on my neck. I pat her on the back and lean out of the hug. She's a lovely girl, but I don't see this going anywhere. Just as I predicted.

She opens my car door, letting in the cold night air, and ambles up to her front door. I watch from the car to make sure she gets in safely, and once she does I sigh in relief and drive off in the other direction.

I don't go straight home, instead I just drive and drive and drive. The lights of the small town slowly disappear and are replaced with tall trees towering over the road. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'm doing, but I kind of like the feeling.

I don't have to think or feel anything - I can just drive.

By the time I get home it's gone 1am, as I turn the light on I can see Alice napping on the sofa with the TV playing in front of her.

I clear my throat to wake her.

"Oh you're home!" She smiles as she opens her eyes, "how was it?"

Of course she'd wait up for me, of course.

"Good thanks." I tell her as I sit down on the sofa beside her, slowly removing my shoes.

"Will you see her again?"

"No," I shake my head, "I don't expect I will."

I stand back up and put my shoes by the door before walking to my room. I turn to say goodnight to Alice but she's just sitting there smirking at me. What is that woman's game? No matter what I do, she always seems to be ten steps ahead of me. I shake my head at her and shut my bedroom door behind me. I can hear her musical laughter as she, too, heads to bed.

OoOoO

**Sorry guys but I'm snowed under with work. Raincheck?**

Bella texts us all on the Friday afternoon. What a shocker. She's still MIA and it's been three weeks now. She missed the bar on Tuesday again.

It's the first day of real sunlight today and all my guys are feeling it, turning their heads up and squinting at the yellow thing in the sky.

"Let's try and knock off early." I tell them. I've hired two new guys who are both learning the ropes from Seth. He may be the youngest, but I trust him the most. Maybe I see a little of myself in him, who knows. They're great employees to be fair to them - they only started on Monday and they're already becoming indispensable.

Everyone grabs their cleaning stuff and gets to work tidying the site. We're actually building the foundations of a new house at the moment, so the job is longer than our usual work but they've all taken to it real well. They're not groundworkers, but they've still been happy to dig all the ditches for the pipes and all the rest of it.

One of the new guys also happens to live a few doors up from Seth, saving me the forty five minutes it takes to pick him up and drop him off twice daily. Everything finally seems to be working out for the better. We're finding our groove.

Leaving them all to it, I decide to sneak off even earlier to sort out payroll and all the fun stuff I hate doing.

When I get home I don't even get changed before pulling out my messy paperwork folder full of old receipts and random forms. Sitting down at the already messy table, I try to get on with it. As much as I love Alice, she can be a pain in the ass when she's around me working, she'll try to butt her nose in and help but she's really more of a hinderance. You can't tell her that though, she'll just so happen to accidentally pour water into your work boots for four days in a row. Not that I've learnt that from experience or anything.

Minutes turn to hours as I just sit there and stare at all the stuff I'm supposed to be catching up with.

"_Get all your ducks in a row."_ I hear my dad's voice ringing through my head. He's the most organised person I think I've ever met, something he did not pass down onto me.

Giving up I head to the fridge to grab a beer, it's Friday after all.

As I twist the top to get the cap off, I hear the weirdest noise from outside of my house. It's the chugging of a battered old diesel engine by the sounds of it. Definitely not Alice's car, or any of the neighbours.

Walking over to the window to take a peek, I spot exactly what it is.

There's Bella. In that yellow monstrosity of hers.

I can't help but chuckle to myself, she does not look like your average bus driver.

She turns the engine off and just sits there.

I can see her body hunch over the steering wheel, long brown hair masking her face.

She must sit in that position for about ten minutes, and I stand and stare at her from the window for just as long.

She then leans back in her seat, turns the key, and drives off.

What the?

Trying to not let her get in my head once more, I go back to my paperwork again. I can't have been doing it for more than half an hour, when I hear that chugging again.

And so back to the window I go. With some sort of weird de ja vu feeling, I watch the same scene play out in front of me again.

Is it ground hog day or something?

She goes from hunched over to sat up a few times this time, before once again driving away. What is she playing at?

And so I go back to my paperwork. Again.

I thought she was snowed under with work anyway.

When I hear that chugging for the third time, I don't even bother to look out the window. Work boots still on, I head straight for the front door.

I open the door just as she raises her hand to knock, making her jump about ten feet backwards.

"Hey Edward."

ZzZzZ

**A/N: Let me know what you think!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Maybe a few more people are guessing where the fic is going now, we'll see. How are people finding it flicking between Bella and Edward POV? I'm trying to keep it to a pattern now, but I can't guarantee it'll be on that pattern throughout. **

**Also, I have to say, the more I write the more excited I get! I know exactly where this story is going and I can't wait to take you there. You may also be bumping into another fan favourite as time goes by. **

AaAaA

**Bella POV**

"Would you like to come in?" He asks me.

I fidget on the spot - do I want to? Or do I want to run away and pretend I never met Edward Cullen? It's a tough call, and I currently sit somewhere in between both options.

"Sure."

He leads me into his house, curiously looking at me the entire time. He's still in his work clothes - dirty black trousers, a white tshirt with a hole near the hem, and a black fleece branded with some trade company I vaguely recognise the name of. He even has his work boots on which are caked in grey cement and brown mud.

"How have you been?" He asks as he sits down at the dining room table, I sit down opposite him. I can hardly remember the house from my last late night visit.

"Good," I nod and smile, cringing inwardly at how awkward this feels, "busy." I add.

"I guessed as much. We haven't seen you in weeks." Was that a dig? I think it's a dig.

"I've been busy." Fuck. I just said that.

He just looks at me and smirks before going back to his paperwork he has in front of him. I want the ground to swallow me up. Even if it takes me to hell it would be more fun than this.

"How's work?" I ask him, just to break the silence.

He doesn't answer, instead continuing to type stuff into his calculator. He then writes something down on the paper, and repeats the process a couple of times.

"Why are you here?" He asks me, without even looking up from his work.

"What do you mean?" I ask, I start to pick at the hem of my sweatshirt, undoing all the stitching on it just to give my hands something to do.

He leans back in his chair and looks at me now, I feel myself shrink under his intense gaze, "I mean why are you here? At my house?"

"I wanted to show you something, but you seem busy." I tell him.

I'd finished building the bus. It probably wasn't as good as he'd have done it, but I was proud of it. I'd poured hours of work into it, had to correct so many fuck ups, had arms and legs covered in bruises, hands covered in nicks and grazes, but I'd done it. Pure determination and a little bit of stubborn defiance driving me onwards.

So it wasn't a lie, I had been busy with work stuff. Just not work work stuff.

"I'll leave you to it," I tell him as I rise from the table and start to rush out, "I'll show you another time." I know full well I won't, but he doesn't need to know and he probably doesn't care anyway.

"Bella wait-" He leans across to me and grabs my wrist, I turn to look at him and he drops my arm like it's poison ivy, clearing his throat he continues, "what did you want to show me?"

I feel embarrassed now, the courage I'd got from driving around for a few hours dissipates, "It's nothing." I tell him and continue to walk off.

I hear his chair scrape on the floor as he gets up to follow me, he mutters something under his breath but I can't quite catch it. I quicken my pace but he matches it.

"I want to see," he tells me, "is it to do with the bus?"

I mean it's not rocket science - I had brought the bus along with me.

But still, I nod, and he follows me outside.

I open the door and he looks at my curiously, but there's a shadow of a smile on those lips.

I motion for him to walk past me and go in.

Shaking his head at me a little, he does what I tell him to. Probably a first for Edward Cullen. Butterflies start going in my stomach, I don't know why I want his approval on the project so much, but I do.

"Did you do this?" He asks me as I follow him onto the bus.

"Yeah. You did most of the prep stuff so I just put the finishing touches in." I tell him honestly. I know for a fact that it wouldn't have happened without his hard work as well, he put his blood, sweat and tears into the start of the project - something I will always be thankful for.

"Holy shit this is amazing!" He stares at me with his mouth forming a little 'o'.

I laugh and walk him through it, "I replaced the driver's seat with something a little more comfy. Then I put a buddy seat behind it which you can lift for storage," I demonstrate it by lifting the lid, "then I put this small little kitchen in - it's basically just a sink and two gas rings. The water tank is underneath and the gas bottle is in this cupboard," I open the cupboard to show him, "then this here is the shower," I open the door and show him the most basic shower in existence, there's also a hose attached to the back as another shower, "I wanted to put a toilet in but it looked way too complicated and there wasn't enough room. But there's plenty of gas stations around, right?" I turn and he nods slightly, face still full of shock, "then there's the table here, I know it's not massive but I thought it would do, and benches on either side. You can actually pull the table top out and turn the thing into a bed, but I can't imagine it would be the most comfortable," I go to demonstrate but decide it would be too much effort, "then the back has some storage space and another bench to sit on."

I face him again to see what his reaction will be. But it's like he's frozen.

I have to admit but I am damn proud of this bus. Wiring it up and putting the water tanks on was not fun - grey water, drinking water, red wire, blue wire. I didn't have a fucking clue the entire time, I plan to get Jake to check it all over. It even has solar panels on the top for goodness sake, and a generator! Every time I click on the internet now I get ads for random car parts, something I never thought would happen in a million years.

The floors in white vinyl with a swirly grey marbled pattern, and the walls are clad with rustic looking wood - in reality they're old pallets I broke down myself. The furniture is all the same style with the same old wood and light blue covers. I even made the curtains myself out of a nice blue material I found online, and when I had some spare I made cushions out of it. I've got blankets already purchased for cold nights on the road, and a small fridge to keep beers cool when I park up for the night.

Not that this thing is likely to ever see the light of day, it'll probably just sit rusting away in my garage until one day all it holds is scrap value.

But I love it.

"Bella," Edward says, "this is incredible." He still hasn't moved. When he finally does get his ability to walk back, he potters about, turning the tap on and off, switching the light switch, and lifting some of the bench seats up and down.

"These buses are bigger than you'd think." I tell him from the doorway.

"Too right!" He exclaims, "I - I can't believe you've done this."

"With your help," I remind him, "even those cabinets are yours." I point towards the little kitchen area, because I had used the frames he'd started.

He walks over to me shaking his head but with a massive smile on his face, "can I hug you?" He asks me, stopping a couple feet in front.

I stand in front of him for a moment, his questioning eyes probing mine. Do I want a hug from him? I mean maybe? My heart thunders and my hands shake a bit, "a quick one." I nod, it sounds like a good compromise in my head.

In the end I don't know how long we stand there hugging for.

The second he pulls me into his arms, I can't help but lean my head against his chest, bringing my own arms up around his back. I just planned to stand there as he hugged me, but that's not happening. I'm the one not letting go.

He smells of cement and sweat and hard work, his strong arms feel amazing against my body. He makes me feel safe. Content. Happy.

Three feelings I am not used to, at all.

He rests his chin on the top of my head and I can feel his stubble mess with my hair, but I don't even care. He breathes deeply through his nose - is this guy smelling me?

It's better than Mike's hugs and Jake's hugs put together. He makes me feel secure, yet it also makes my stomach twist and turn.

I'd been having more of my weird dreams, so although this was the most contact we've ever had in real life, in my mind we've done so much more.

"What on earth?" We both turn to the direction of the voice, Alice's voice, outside of the van.

Sensing that the moment is over, we both slowly pull away from the hug.

"You need to check this out." Edward shouts as he jumps down to meet Alice outside of the bus, but not before quickly squeezing my hand as he brushes past.

"Well what on earth is it?" Alice asks again, "and why the hell is it on my driveway?"

"You're gonna need to see it to believe it." Edward laughs, I sit down on the little buddy seat and wait for her to enter my new kingdom.

"Oh my GOD!" She screeches as she looks inside. As she looks around she spots me, "You did this?" She asks in disbelief.

"With a little help from your cousin." I motion over to where Edward is stood in the doorway of the bus.

"Oh Bella," Alice says, bringing her hand up and putting it over her mouth, she literally looks like she's about to cry, "this is so beautiful."

"Thanks." I look at the ground and smile, picking once again at the loose thread on my sweatshirt.

"I best drive it home now." I tell her, getting a bit quieter. I remember how embarrassed I felt the other week when I found out how stupid I had been. I wanted Edward to see the finished product because of how much he helped at the start without question, but I didn't want them all laughing at me behind my back.

"Oh no honey, that's not happening," I feel her small hand snake it's way into mine as she forces me up on my feet with more strength than her little body should hold, "Jacob and Lucy _need _to see this."

"Oh no," I shake my head at her, "it was just a stupid little project."

"It's not stupid." I hear Edward say from the door.

"Eddie, would you lock up please?" Alice asks him, he nods and jumps down.

Alice asks for a tour so I repeat everything I showed Edward, pointing out a few bits here and there as she oohed and ahhed at it all.

Edward came back after about ten minutes, although not showered, he now stood in a clean tshirt and jeans, "well are we going then? Jacob and Lucy are going to meet us at yours."

Oh yeah, Jake's their friend as well now.

Sensing that I have absolutely no choice in this, I go to the front and get into the driver's seat, leaving Alice and Edward in the back. The whole way home all I could hear was them talking about the little things I'd done in here, and Edward telling Alice exactly what he's done to help. Alice just couldn't believe we'd managed to keep it a secret for so long.

As I pulled up into the driveway, Jacob and Lucy were already there. She sat atop the bonnet of his car, Jaocb leaning in towards her, she pointed with a lost expression on her face as she saw us pull up. Jake turned around and gave us a matching expression.

I could hear Alice's beautiful laughter from behind me as I chucked the thing in park.

The pair of them were instantly at the side of the bus, desperate to find out what the hell was going on.

I get up and opened the door for them to come in and see.

"What is this?" Jake laughed in disbelief, "we don't see you in a while and now this?"

"I'll need you to check over some of the wiring and stuff if that's okay." I ask.

"Only if you tell me what it is first."

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Alice says as she stands up and takes them both through the tour I had given her not long earlier, "Bella and Edward have been doing it."

"Well it's mostly Bella," Edward interrupts, "I just helped with the shell of it."

Lucy comes up beside me and gives me a side hug, weirdly enough I'm not minding the touchy feely stuff so much today, "You're full of surprises." She tells me, before joining the others looking around.

The tap gets turned off and on again a few times, as do the lights and even the shower, which causes Lucy to scream a bit as the jets of water go all over her arm.

I just sit back and watch it all happen.

Maybe they won't all be bitching about me tomorrow, about how stupid I am for watsing my time and Edwards on this.

Or maybe they will.

I still haven't decided.

"Drinks?" I ask them when they all sit at the table, it's a squeeze but they manage it.

"Here or in the house?" Jacob grins.

"The house." I confirm, wanting the obsession with the bus to stop a bit now. Quit whilst I'm ahead, if they spend too much longer in here the surprise will wear off and they'll see how stupid I am.

They all pile out of the bus and I chuck Jacob the house key to let them all in as I drive the bus around and park it back in it's forever home, the garage.

When I do get back into the house, it's like no time has passed since they were last here. They all lounge around the sofa with drinks in hand and music playing.

Yes. The house is still better when it's full.

It's been lonely here on my own for the last few weeks. Jake visited a couple times, but that was it.

To start with I join in with the drinking and the laughter, but it gets quite exhausting after being out of it for a while.

I sneak off and grab my emergency smokes and a fresh drink, then go out onto the balcony.

I can't have been there for more than two minutes before I hear him walk up behind me, "you didn't lock it this time."

"No I didn't." I confirm, though it's pretty obvious because he's out here with me.

"How have you been?" He asks.

I nod my head a bit, looking out over the forest instead of at him, "I've been better."

He expels a large gust air and sits on one of the chairs out here, I never did drag the one Jake used back in, "do you want to talk about it?"

I follow him and sit on the other chair, right next to him, instantly feeling a bit of regret due to the close proximity, "not really."

Jake was right when he said this time of year was hard for me. It was the anniversary of my father's death a couple weeks ago, and the anniversary of everything that happened to me just last week.

"I'm still not getting honesty from you." He tells me as he grips the back of his neck with those strong hands of his.

"You want honesty?" I raise my brows and he nods, "I came over today to apologise for my behaviour last time you saw me, "he tries to interrupt but I put my hand up to stop him, "I acted like a child. I know that. As you can clearly see I have issues to work through, but that's my problem. I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

The way he looks at me, it's like he's looking deep into my soul, "I can help you work through them. I want to help you. You just need to ask."

I shake my head and break the eye contact, once again looking out over the forest, "I need to be ready to work through it myself. And right now I'm not. I don't know if I ever will be."

"Have you ever heard the term a problem shared is a problem halved?" He asks.

Still not being able to bring myself to look at him, yet feeling his eyes on my neck, I continue, "You want me to be honest. So I'll be honest. I like that you don't know, I also like that Alice doesn't know. You met me with no preconceptions, no assumption, you just met _me_. I feel like everyone in the world knows some version of my story, yet I've never told my story to anyone. I want to keep it that way."

"You're telling me you didn't tell Jake?"

I shake my head, "Jake knows most of it, I'll admit. He's been through it with me. He heard all the rumours, everything-" I pause, I need to be careful what I say here, "from the other side of the story. He's worked out for himself what the truth is."

"Why didn't you just tell him?" He asks me again, I can hear his chair creak as he leans forward in it, but I still refuse to look at him. He can't see my tears. Not again.

"If I tell someone what happened, it means it's real. It means it actually happened to me." If he wants my honesty, he can have it. But that doesn't mean he needs to know about my past.

"You won't be able to work through it unless you accept that whatever happened happened." He tells me, the armchair advice can go to hell.

"You think I don't know that?" My voice raises and I can't even stop it, "you think I don't know that I'm living in some sort of fantasy land? Just getting through every day as it comes? You don't think I'm tired? Tired of the nightmares that come every time I close my eyes? Why do you think I work so much, Edward?" I flash my eyes to face him, he shrugs, looking a bit shocked at my outburst, but it's not stopping yet because I'm on a roll, "it's because in my head, I thought that if I worked twelve hour days, I would be too exhausted for the terrors to come. But they still did. So I started working fourteen hours instead. Then it was seventeen. At the worst of it, I was probably working twenty hours a day. I haven't had a full night's sleep in years. I'm always exhausted, I'm always tired of everything," the tears don't stop now as they pour down my cheeks and make my mouth taste salty, "but I still try to be a good person. I still try to help those around me. If I can't be happy, I want those I'm close to to be. I thought going to New York would help, but it was just a distraction, I thought coming here would help me work through it, but it's just made everything worse, I thought the bus would be an escape to make everyone happy _including_ me, but I was wrong about that too."

I pause as I choke on my tears, shudders running through my body. Edward just stares at me in shock, "so what right do you think you have to my story? Why should I have to tell you?"

We both sit in an awkward silence for a while, only broken by my sobs and an owl in the distance.

"I can wait for you to sort through things, Bella," Edward looks close to tears himself as he says this. He reaches out a hand to me, I look at it but leave it there, "I can wait to hear what you have to say."

"You'll be waiting a long time, maybe even forever." I tell him honestly, trying to wipe my teary, snotty face on my sweatshirt.

He gives me a small smile and his eyes start searching my soul again, "I'm willing to wait that long."

At that point I do place my hand in his and he squeezes it tightly, not letting go. He raises his other hand hesitantly, his brows furrowed as if questioning how far he can push this, as he touches the back of his hand to my face, wiping my tears away. I freeze at the touch I'll admit, but I let him continue, the touch feeling deep, loving, romantic even. Something I hadn't felt in a long while, if ever.

"If there is anything you need, anything at all, you promise me you'll let me know?" His tone is hard yet soft, and full of care. I don't know why he'd do anything for me, but I'm glad I've got him.

"I promise."

OoOoO

"_Come here darling." Edward says to me, reaching his hand out for mine. _

_I delicately place my gloved hand in his. It's maroon today, and silk. _

_He leads me down a long corridor with lavish plants and strange statues on either side, the carpets are red and the walls have a gold print on them. _

_He leads me up a flight of stairs, along another corridor, down some stairs, then up some stairs, then along and around a corner. I feel like we've been walking for an age. _

_He stops me in front of a full length mirror. My dress matches my gloves, it has a plunging neckline and sticks to every curve and bump of my body before flowing out a bit more over my legs, until it brushes the floor. I have a silver pendant necklace on, and expensive crystals litter my hair which is up on top of my head in some sort of extravagant design. The makeup around my eyes is dark, almost black, and my lipstick is a shade of deep, red wine. _

_Edward wears one of his perfectly fitted tuxedos again, and shiny black dress shoes. His hair is perfectly combed to the side._

_He rubs his thumb in circles over the nape of my neck, before running his hand all the way down my back, the dress obviously backless as well, as he demonstrates. _

_I moan and tip my head to one side and his face is instantly there, trailing open mouthed kisses starting at just behind my ear, and trailing all the way down my neck onto my shoulder. I close my eyes and take it all in. _

_My heart rate increases and I feel dizzy from his touch. _

_I open my eyes and look at our reflection, he's looking right back at me through the mirror. He looks hungry. _

_I feel his erection pressed against my back, and push back into it which causes his soft kisses to turn into small bites. For some reason this turns me on more. _

_He pulls away from my neck, much to dismay, and talks directly into my ear, "oh my beautiful Bella," his voice is like music, like a symphony, "aren't we divine? High school sweethearts, the power couple of the school, everyone wanted to be us then, and everyone wants to be us now." _

_High school sweethearts? That doesn't sound right. I crease my brows and turn to question him, but he leaves more kisses on my neck which makes me forget my own name. _

_He pulls me through a door to the left of us and crushes my body to his. _

_I was expecting some sort of lavish bedroom, but it's a cleaning cupboard instead. I can even see an old 'Forks High' banner somewhere in the back. _

_But then he closes the door and we're in darkness. _

_He begins to kiss me and pull me hips into him. His hands roam like he owns me, his mouth like he's trying to prove his dominance. He bites my bottom lip, a little too hard, but holds my head so I can't get away. _

_But then he begins to tease my breasts through the thin, silky material and I forget about my worry as I moan into his mouth. _

_His strong hands tear the front of my dress so they can ravage them, slowly moving his mouth down to my hard nipples. _

_I cry out as he does it, and run my hands through his hair. _

_The texture wasn't what I was expecting though, it also seems shorter somehow. _

_But what he does to my body makes me forget all of that. _

_Do I even care who's rubbing their cock up against me and making me feel like this? _

_Wait of course I do. _

_But the thought once again is pushed to the back of my mind as one of his hands runs up my dress and starts to make his way to my panties. _

"_Oh Edward." I cry out in euphoria. _

"_Who's Edward?" The voice is different now, not the same as the person in the mirror. _

_He continues to touch and kiss me, but I fumble around behind me for the light switch. _

_When the light finally comes on in the room, it's almost blinding. _

_But I can still see who's stood in front of me. _

_I panic and scream, dashing out of the closet and running for help. With my dress torn I try to hold it together. _

_I can hear his footsteps coming after me, but I don't stop running. I can't stop. _

_There's no windows in this place, and all the doors are locked. _

_I'm lost. _

_I'm stuck. _

_Which way did he take me? I can't recognise anything, I don't know where I am. _

_I can hear laughter coming from somewhere, and music too. But no matter where I run to, it never changes volume, so I don't know if I'm getting closer or further away. _

_I trip over my dress and end up on the floor, and I can see his footsteps get closer. _

I scream as I wake up, not sure what the hell that was all about.

My bedroom window rattles in the wind as I sit and cry and try to get my breath back.

I see a light go on in the sitting room from under my door.

I hear footsteps coming closer.

And then he's there, in my doorway.

Fuck.

Am I still in a dream?

"Bella are you okay?" Edward asks me from the doorway.

"You're not Edward," I say, but he walks in anyway and sits on my bed, "you're not Edward," I shake my head and rock, "you're not Edward."

"Yes I am." He tells me, looking around awkwardly, unsure of whether to touch me or not.

"You change," I tell him as tears stream down my face, "and I don't like who you change to."

My mind races, I'm so confused. I don't know what's real and what's not.

He gently takes my hand but I pull away like he's on fire.

Having a panic attack in a dream is a new one even for me.

He looks pained, terrified, as he takes me in, "Do you remember? The other night when you said about your nightmares, about how an empty house makes them worse, I said I'd stay."

"You did?" I ask again, too tired and too confused to remember much of anything.

"Yes, I did." He takes my hand again and this time I don't pull away.

This is real, he's real. I can tell from the gentle way he speaks to me, and from how soft his touches are. This is real Edward, not dream Edward.

And he's here now. In a tshirt and flannel pants.

I crawl across my bed towards him and climb into his lap. He looks at me in shock. I put my arms around his neck and his snake around my back as I straddle him on my knees. I start to rock slowly, his face may be shocked but I can feel that he wants me in his pants. I crash my lips to his hungrily as I rock, but he tries to push me away.

"Bella," he says against me mouth, "Bella!" He's firmer this time.

I stop what I'm doing and look at him, my lip quivering and tears continue to leak out of my eyes.

"Not like this." He shakes his head, placing his hands on my thighs and leaning his forehead against mine, "not like this."

And then I come crashing back down to earth.

I hastily clamber out of his lap and back all the way up until my back hits the wall.

I'm a fucking mess. A fucking embarrassment. I turn around so I don't have to see that face any more. The one that fills both my dreams and my realities.

He's behind me again, but his real touches are different to the dream touches. His hands are more calloused, but even with his rougher hands, he somehow still manages to be more gentle.

I let him lead me back to my bed, but when I get in and notice him turn his back, I grab his hand.

"Stay," I say. He looks at me painfully, "please." I beg.

And so he does. He gets into the bed beside me and hugs me to close to him.

I sleep soundly, for the first time in a long time.

ZzZzZ

**A/N: Now we're getting into the story. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I warned everyone at the start, but I'll warn you all again. There's going to be happy times in this story, but also some very dark times. Writing is kinda like a therapy to me, or at least an outlet, so yeah… That's that. I'm glad we're finally getting into the real story now! Also, spoiler alert, this story will have a HEA - I like my dark themes, but I always like to end on a good note. **

AaAaA

**Edward POV**

I've been sleeping at Bella's house for four nights now.

It started on the Friday, Jacob gave us a lift back to ours and I grabbed my sleep stuff and came back.

She's had at least one nightmare every night since, and they're terrifying. I'll be happily visiting the land of nod on her couch, and then I'll hear her blood curdling scream.

I guess all alone up here in the woods, nobody has heard them.

They're the lucky ones.

I won't push her for an answer any more, I don't think I even want to know. We have the honesty from now on rule, and for now I'm happy with that.

But then last night… happened.

Usually I hardly touch her when I go into her room. I just grab her a glass of water, like Alice told me to do that time, and talk her down.

But last night she didn't even know who I was or why I was there, said about me changing into someone else.

And then she climbed on top of me.

Definitely breaking her minimal touching rule she has in place.

So now here I am, getting ready for a Tuesday night at the bar with the gang, unsure of where I'll even be sleeping tonight.

I'm sat on the couch waiting for Alice to hurry up and get ready.

When I explained my new sleeping arrangements to her, she was confused to say the least. I had to explain that no, we're not together. No, we're not sleeping together. Yes, I really am sleeping on the couch (which was true at the time). And yes, it is because of what happened here that time.

"Ready Eddy?" Alice asks me, knowing full well how much I hate it.

I nod my head and follow her out of the door, walking over as usual.

"I feel like I never see you anymore." She pouts as she skips alongside me.

"I'm home every evening." I remind her. Because that was my routine now. Sleep at Bellas, wake up early, go home, go to work, go home, go to Bellas.

"I know, I know," she whines, "look after yourself, okay?"

"I always do." I give her a friendly jab on the arm which she quickly returns, only ten times harder.

We enter the bar and go to our usual table to wait, "do you think Bells will come tonight?" Alice asks me.

"I honestly don't know," I tell her, "she likes to keep us all on our toes."

"You got that right," Alice laughs before her expression turns serious, brows furrowed and lips pursed, "but Eddie I've been thinking."

"Edward," I remind her, "and that's always dangerous."

She hits my arm, "I'm serious!" she takes a deep breath before continuing, "I've been at the school long enough to take some time off now. They usually recommend using it for having a kid, but that's not going to happen any time soon-"

"Where is this going?" I interrupt, yet another baffling woman I have in my life. Lucky me.

"I was getting there before you got in the way," she reprimands, "I have some money saved as well which could keep the house running. I think I want to travel for a bit, and I think you should come too."

"What?" This is out of the blue.

"And the others. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the bus. It was just so serendipity. I'd had a bad day in work, my boss mentioned about the leave thing, and then when I get home it's parked on my driveway."

"You've got to be joking." I tell her. She's mad.

She shakes her head at me, "your business could probably live without you for a few weeks with no hassle. You mentioned earlier that you're all booked up for the next six months, and you've got the extra guys now. Just let them get on with it."

I shake my head and turn away, "I'm going to get drinks."

Sliding out of my seat I walk to the bar and wait. The barman is in front of me in a flash, usually I'd like that, but today I needed some time away from my cousin to clear my head a bit.

I hear the door go and see Lucy and Jacob arrive, so add their drinks to the order, and walk back to the table tray in hand.

"Has Alice had chance to tell you her crazy plan yet?" I ask as I place all of the drinks down, they all murmur their thanks.

Lucy shakes her head, "No, but we have one as well that we want to talk to you guys about."

Oh god damn it.

"And what's that?" I ask in a bored tone. I'm tired and not in the mood tonight.

"It's about the bus," they all lean their heads in closer across the table, oh for fuck sake, "we want to go on that road trip Bella was talking about."

"You guys don't even know what the road trip is." Am I the only voice of reason in this place?

"I do," Jake tells me, "it's a pretty random route, straight down the side of the country then across to Florida. Bells used to talk about it all the time."

"You can't seriously be thinking about jacking everything in and doing that? It'll take ages." Apparently I am the only voice of reason.

"I have enough saved for about nine weeks off of work," Jake tells us, "Lucy the same. This should only take about six so then we can either head on back or go further."

"Will the bus even last that long?" I ask, I can see Alice bouncing on her seat beside me, the other two practically the same.

"I'm a mechanic, I got this." Jake laughs, pointing at his own chest.

It's official, they've lost their minds.

"Where would we sleep? It's one thing to take time off, but travel costs money too."

This time it's Lucy jumping to defend their crazy ambition, "we'll take tents and park up at campsites. The van has a little kitchen so we'll be able to do it for next to nothing."

"I say we do it." Alice decides on behalf of everyone.

"I say we don't." I remind everyone as the only one of sound body and mind.

Alice shrugs, "Fine. Edward can stay at home and water our plants, and we can go."

My phone goes and I welcome the distraction.

**I'm going to give tonight a miss, sorry**

It's Bella, I see the three dots as she continues to type.

**Thank you for your help this week**

**I get it if you want to stop coming over now**

I knew this would happen, damn.

**Do you still want me to come over?**

I ask her, already knowing what she'll say.

**Yes**

Okay so that wasn't what I was expecting. Tonight is full of surprises.

I can hear them talk about their travel plans, but then a thought hits me.

"How do you know if Bella will let you use the bus? Do you know that she wants to go?" I ask them, they seem to have forgotten the most important piece of the puzzle.

All three of them start to laugh at me, because yes lets all gang up Edward. I take that as a yes she would more than likely love to go. I mean it's true but come on.

As the night draws on, Alice and Lucy in particular seem to ply me with more and more alcohol. I wasn't going to drink, I needed to get to Bella, but they've given me little choice.

Lucky Jacob sits there sipping on his cola, being the designated driver out of he and Lucy tonight.

"Here you go." Alice says, plonking yet another bottle in front of me.

She turns to Lucy and they both laugh, before Lucy turns to me and asks the same question they've asked after every new drink I've had, "So will you be travelling with us?"

"Or watering the plants?" Alice finishes for her.

You know what?

Fuck it.

"If this actually goes anywhere after tonight, I will get in that bus and travel with the lot of you." I shake my head and down half the bottle in one.

"That's my man," Jacob slaps me on the back, "I thought I was going to have to be the only guy for a minute there."

"Oh I couldn't do that to you," I joke back, "have you never met these girls?"

Fuck it.

It won't happen anyway. Too much planning, too much prep, too much money. We're adults - we have responsibilities.

But whatever makes them smile tonight.

We pile out of the bar at last call and Alice starts to walk home, shit I'm way too drunk to drive.

"Jake? Jake!" I shout after him as we walks across the carpark hand in hand with Lucy.

He turns to look at me, "yeah?"

Fuck, he probably doesn't know about the arrangement I have with Bella, I doubt he'll like it much either, but it's my only way to her and I need to keep my promise, "can you drop me to Bellas please?"

"Ummm sure…" He says, "are you two a thing now or something?"

"No. No," I tell him, shaking my head before he punches me in the nose, "she text me and I need to see her is all."

"Alright man, jump in." And so I do. I jump in the back of his beat up truck as he drives the winding route to Bellas.

I can see his looking at me through narrowed eyes through the mirror, but he doesn't question me. Neither does Lucy who's all but passed out in the passenger seat.

It seems the excitement of this 'plan' has made her drink a lot more than usual, much like Alice.

"Shit." I mutter, I just fucking abandoned my drunken cousin.

"You okay man?" Jake asks me.

"Alice." I mutter, looking out of the window as if she's somehow running alongside the car.

"I'll go check on her don't worry." He tells me.

Maybe what Lucy said about being loyal to more than just Bella is right.

"Thanks Jake, I appreciate it." I tell him as we pull into the driveway. I can see Bella up on the balcony with her nightwear - shorts and a vest top - under her coat. She's smoking even though she's apparently not a smoker and just likes the very occasional cigarette.

She waves at us as we pull up, Jacob shouts his hello, before they drive off leaving me there on Bella's porch.

She stubs out her smoke and walks back in to buzz me up.

"Hey," she says as she opens the door, "good night?"

"It was interesting," I laugh, I'll explain the craziness to her in a bit, "how come you didn't come?"

"I had to make a conference call to England. I thought it would finish earlier but man they went on."

"Was it worth it though?"

"About five hundred thousand dollars worth it." She shrugs.

I do a double take, "you made that much tonight?" surely not. She's obviously well off, her apartment is amazing, but that well off? No.

She laughs, "Well it doesn't all go straight into my pocket, no. I made that for the company."

"I can see why they keep you around even if you are in Forks." I chuckle.

I walk over and sit on the sofa, taking my shoes off and stretching back, Bella sits down near me and crosses her legs.

Damn she's a sight. Her hair tumbles around her shoulders all unkempt and unruly, her vest top sits low on her chest, showing off her cleavage, and her small pyjama shorts show off those endlessly long legs.

"I've got to be honest, I'm beat." I tell her, trying to nicely tell her to leave my makeshift bedroom.

She stands up, thankfully taking the hint, but then turns back to look at me again, "that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." She rocks back and forth on her heels and worries her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Oh yeah?" I ask curiously.

"Could you sleep in my bed tonight? Last night has-" she pauses and sighs, "I promise I'll keep my hands to myself." She jokes.

"I'll be right in." I tell her.

She walks off into her bedroom and I watch her ass bounce beneath those tiny shorts as she goes. Damn that girl is testing me.

I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and change into my pyjamas before following her in.

OoOoO

"No no no no no."

It's Bella. She's having another dream, but she's not awake yet.

She sleeps curled on her side of the bed, and I sleep on the edge of the other, masses of space between us.

But I move closer.

"Hey." I murmur, placing a hand on her shoulder, she freezes for a second before thrashing around a little, "It's okay. It's okay." I whisper.

She wakes up at this point and looks at me through heavy lids, "are you okay?" I ask her.

She nods so I lay back down.

So does she.

But every so slowly she edges closer. Until she's managed to worm herself fully against me. She rests her head on my chest and her tiny hand on my stomach. I wrap my arms around her, like it's all completely natural.

This is how I want to sleep for the rest of my life.

OoOoO

"You should stay for breakfast." Bella tells me in the morning.

I awake with a start, as she leans on the palm of her hand, staring at me intently.

"I'll stay for coffee." I mumble to her, trying to not open my mouth too much. It wouldn't be great to scare her away with morning breath.

She jumps up and climbs over me, making her way out to the kitchen. I hear the coffee machine go on as I attempt to rub the sleepiness out of my eyes.

Following her out in my sleepwear, I notice she'd thrown a fleece on over that revealing bed top of hers.

Knowing how I take my coffee by heart now, she puts a mug of it in front of me as soon as I take a seat.

"You're in a good mood." I comment, and she genuinely is. I think this is the happiest I've ever seen her.

"I know," she tells me, "I'm feeling more well rested than usual."

I laugh, to be fair the nightmares didn't seem quite so bad last night. Not like the particularly horrific one the night before.

"So tell me about this road trip." I ask her.

Her smile falters as she looks down into her lap, "it was a stupid idea, I don't want to talk about it."

Damn did she really take that to heart? That was weeks ago now, "I still want to know about it."

"It's a long one," she admits, still not making eye contact and instead focusing all of her attention on her apparently fascinating microwave, "it starts in Forks, then Seattle, then Salem, then San Francisco, then Vegas, Phoenix, El Paso, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, Tampa, Fort Myers, then Miami."

"And you know that by heart?" I ask, shocked at the detail.

She nods, "Dad and I used to talk about it all the time. Even when I lived with mum, he used to phone me and talk about it. My first Christmas in Arizona, he bought me a map of the US and it had pins in it connecting a bit of string showing the route. He wrote at the top that it was the ultimate hot weather road trip. He hated the hot weather, but I love it."

"So it's important to you?"

"I guess so. I will do it one day, whether it's in an electric wheelchair or not." Damn, why does her saying this make me want to make it happen so much? She sounds so defiant, like there was absolutely no question on whether it was going to happen or not.

Ah fuck it, Alice was right. She always is.

"Look I don't want you to get your hopes up," I tell her, she looks over to me with those wide, brown eyes of hers, "because obviously at the minute it's just an idea-"

"Yes?" She interrupts.

"Last night at the bar," should I be saying this? Will she be heartbroken if it doesn't happen? "We were all talking about possibly going."

Her jaw drops as she stares at me, "are you kidding me?"

"Well obviously nothing is certain yet, so don't think about it too much. We'd all have to sort it out with employers and things. It may not happen for years if it ever does happen. But it may happen."

"Oh it's going to happen, I'm going to make sure of it," She grins, "today's a good day. Thank you Edward."

Serendipity. It was all serendipity.

ZzZzZ

**A/N: Tell me what you think! Much love to all of my followers and reviewers. I'm trying to respond to all reviews, but I saw on Twitter that fanfiction has a glitch and it's not notifying people of emails :(**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you again for all the lovely reviews! I like to read and respond to all of them just to show how much they're appreciated. I know some of you feel like I'm holding back information, but that's because I am. I created a pretty detailed plot before I started writing this and don't intend to deviate away from it too much, all will be revealed in time. There has so far not been a single question asked that I don't have the answer for, I'm just asking for a little patience and trust from you guys :)**

**I have a new story out if anyone would like to read it! ExB again of course, but very different to this. It'll only be 3 chapters but they're pretty long ones (around 10,000 words per chapter). I would massively appreciate feedback on it! It will NOT impact the uploads of this story at all. **

AaAaA

**Bella POV **

The month after I found out about the trip passes in a blur.

It's chaos. Total chaos. But I love it.

Jake came over to have a look at the bus, giving it a few tweaks here and there, everyone does what they can to sort of their lives here before we head off, and we spend an increased amount of time together to try and get everything planned.

It's been emotional, don't get me wrong. This was the trip my Dad and I had always planned to take. First it was going to be after I left high school, but at that point I was with… him. Then I was going to go a little while after we broke up, but the thrill of money making in NYC became too much, and then he died.

I think that's my biggest regret in life. Not getting with you know who, because I'd have never gone to New York and worked my ass off if that had never happened. But it was spending so little time with my father in the last few years of his life.

But he was Forks through and through, one of the reasons mum left him in the first place. And I had become so anti Forks that I didn't want to step across the boundary into this place. I may as well have started the Forks Hate Committee.

I selfishly assumed I had years and years left with him. But that's Charlie for you, kept the fact he had terminal cancer all to himself.

If only I'd known.

If only he'd asked.

I'd have spent any amount of money trying to make it right, trying to get him better. But his aversion to hospitals was something he carried with him to his grave.

God I miss him.

But I cannot think of a better group of people to do this trip with.

Jake's dad cried when he found out we were going, or so Jake told me. Apparently Charlie used to bring it up often. Apparently he even kept a little map in his wallet that he got in a box of matches years ago, he'd drawn the route on in messy biro and used to show it to everyone he could.

I'll do the road trip for you, Dad.

But before I finally get to go, there's things to prepare.

Which is why I'm currently being dragged around the three clothes shops Forks has to look for summer clothes. In Forks. Sensible.

"Alice, do you really think they're going to sell florida suitable clothes here?" I whine as she drags me into shop number two of three.

"Gee I don't know Bella, maybe if you stopped moaning we'd find out quicker." She chastises me, sick of my all day whineathon.

I can hear Lucy laughing from the shop doorway. She and Alice had become increasingly close the last few weeks.

She's free as a bird now, she's quit her job at the diner completely, says that she's going to try for something totally new when she gets back. Good for her.

"But I don't know _why _I should have to waste my time when I know the answer already." I hate being in town. I hate it with a passion. But Alice and Lucy turned up today is Alice's Volvo and refused to leave my driveway until I got in the car. I'm basically their hostage at this point.

Have I made the right decision bringing Alice along?

Don't be silly, Bella. Of course it's the right decision.

We have two weeks until we set off now. Edward wasn't too impressed with how quickly it was happening, but he was warned that he either came along when we said so, or we were leaving him behind. Eventually he learnt to keep his mouth closed. The self proclaimed voice of reason had given up.

"You never know, maybe the owner of this shop is new to town and hasn't quite grasped the drab colour scheme yet." Lucy laughs.

I sigh, "Can't I just get my stuff from New York?"

"Can't you just stop whining?" Alice asks with sickeningly sweet politeness.

Shaking my head, I follow them both into the store.

As predicted, there's nothing suitable. It's just coats, coats, more coats, some jumpers, and fleeces. There's a tiny corner dedicated to their summer range - we're talking three options: an XXL cover up that looks more like a beach umbrella, a swimsuit out of the 1950s, and some flip flops that were already partially broken.

Just what I was after.

Thankfully I was heading to New York tomorrow to sort out the business before the trip. I wouldn't be returning until the day before we leave.

I can feel the excitement pool in my stomach. This _will _be the trip of a lifetime, I'll make sure of it.

Our journey into shop three ends the same way the first two did. Absolutely nothing.

We head home from town empty handed.

"I don't mind getting a cab back to mine if you two have places to be." I tell Alice as we walk up to her car.

She grinned at me, "no it's fine. Besides, this is your last day here, Jingle Bells."

"Jingle Bells?" Lucy repeats in hysterical laughter, which the two of readily join in on.

OoOoO

As we pull up to my apartment, something feels off.

I can't quite put my finger on what, though.

Feeling my heart in my throat as my head grows slightly dizzy, I begin to panic. As to not alert the others to my inner turmoil incase it made them change their mind about travelling with me, I begin to run my fingers through my hair and chucked on a pair of aviator sunglasses I'd packed for the day. Who cares if it's not sunny, celebrities wear sunglasses inside nowadays.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asks from the back, reaching forward and placing her cold hand on my shoulder. It takes everything in me not to squirm away from the touch.

"Fine, fine." I tell her. Again, at the moment these people want to travel with me. When they realise how much of a mess I am, that may not be the case.

I watch as the sunlight dwindles behind the trees surrounding us, trying to distract myself.

But now they're both looking at me, I catch a glimpse of myself in the wing mirror and notice that telltale red blush lighting up my face like Rudolph's nose.

Their concern is nothing short of annoying right now. I know, I know I should feel lucky having such intuitive friends who look out for me, but I _want_ to hide in the shadows.

They both flash a look at each other, one I was obviously not supposed to see.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice coming out way more high pitched than I thought it would.

There it was, there was that look again!

"Nothing, Bells." Alice laughs, but it's a lot more hollow and forced than usual.

Fuck.

Did I fail some sort of test?

Are the plans off?

Do I need to get the first flight out of here and never look back?

"Come on, let us walk you inside." Lucy says, giving me a sad sort of smile.

They want a conversation too serious for inside a car?

I'm on the verge of a panic attack right about now.

Stars begin to appear at the corners of my vision as I walk towards the stairs.

_Keep it together, Bella. _

I grab the handrail all the way up to avoid falling flat on my face, not trusting my jelly legs to get me to my destination safely.

"What's going on?" I ask the pair of them as they trail up behind me.

"Nothing." They both answer in unison, far too quickly for my liking.

Trying to remember to breathe like a normal person, I turn the key in the lock but the door is already open.

What the fuck?

"Girls, maybe we should call someone…"

"Don't be silly Bella, nobody even knows there's a house up here." Alice tells me, shaking her head. Clearly she didn't have a cop for a dad.

Palms sweaty, I push the door open and walk into my apartment…

That has three tents set up in the middle of it?!

All of my beautiful furniture shoved to one side, it had been replaced with three ugly green tents.

What kind of burglary is this?

"Hey Bells." Jake says as he pops just his head out of one of the tents, making himself look like some sort of weird human tortoise hybrid. Basically the stuff of nightmares.

Letting out a sigh of relief and a breath I didn't even know I was holding, I stumble back a bit until my back hits the… squidgy wall?

That doesn't seem right.

Two strong arms wrap themselves around my middle. Panicking at the intrusion of personal space and still feeling on high alert, I grab said arms and dig my nails in as deep as I can manage.

"Ah fuck! What's that for, Bells?" I hear shouted behind me as the squidgy wall and strong arms moves away.

"You made me jump!" I snipe as I turn around and see Edward rubbing his forearms which just so happen to have multiple red crescent moon marks on them, "I'm sorry."

"I was checking on the bus when I heard you guys turn up so I followed you up." He reasons, still clutching his arms.

"How did you get in?" I ask indignantly. Still confused as to why I currently have four people stood around my apartment, along with three tents in the middle of the room.

Lucy and Alice look at each other guiltily before Lucy speaks up, "that was us - Alice distracted you as you were trying to lock the door, and I made sure you didn't actually lock it."

"So you all conspired to break into my home?" I ask again, still completely fucking lost.

"We're going camping!" Alice grins as she skips over to me and grabs my hand, pulling me closer to the tents.

"In here?"

"Yes in here! It's your last night before going to New York and we have to have a trial run." Alice smiled at me, pulling me down onto the ground and pulling back the entrance to one of the tents. Inside there were two sleeping bags and plenty of blankets.

"You guys are crazy." I laugh as I look into each tent individually, including the one holding turtle Jake.

"And you're not?" Jake responds, leaving everyone in fits of laughter. Including me.

The two girls then come and have a look at the tents as well, obviously admiring the handiwork of Jake and Edward. I can only imagine how much bickering and arguments it had entailed - I'm sure it's also something they'll never reveal. I giggle to myself at the mental image of them snapping at each other like an old married couple.

I guess they were right though, this stuff is important.

Pulling some beers out of the fridge, I begin to hand them around to everyone before pouring myself a glass of water. Alcohol would not be good for my frazzled mind right now.

I watch from the sidelines as everyone laughs at Alice opening a campfire app on her phone that they then all proceed to huddle around as if it's a real fire. I laugh along with them, just with a bit less enthusiasm.

I walk back to my emergency cigarette cupboard, intending to take one but I end up taking the entire carton out onto the balcony with me.

This all feels too real now.

I mean I feel… happy? I should feel happy. The road trip I've dreamt of is happening.

In my mind I know I should be happy. I should be elated. I should be in there singing and dancing my heart out.

But instead I just feel kind of… stressed.

I feel like an outsider looking in as I look into my own home at my own friends.

I don't want to feel like this.

I don't know why I do feel like this.

How do I stop feeling like this?

I find my eyes keep falling on Edward. His perfect smile, his bed head all the time hair, and his arms that make me feel safe. I can still see the faint outlines of his muscles even though he's now thrown a navy blue jumper over his white tshirt. He'd been good to me, too good, and I don't even know why.

The dreams haven't stopped, but he helps me through them now. After the one minor hiccough of horny Bella, we settled into a nice routine. He would sleep on my bed, him over one side and me all the way on the other, then in the mornings we've been waking up somewhat tangled in each other's arms. I usually wake up before him and peel myself away before he's fully awake, though.

He ended up throwing his all into the travel plans, just like the rest of us, even though he had reservations about it.

He's the opposite to his cousin - Alice lives with her head in the clouds, away with the fairies. Edward spends his time thinking realistically and logically.

Maybe that's why he keeps me so grounded.

I smile at him awkwardly as he makes eye contact with me through the glass, eyeing the cigarette in my hand. Standing up from outside his tent, he begins to walk over to me.

Whereas a few months ago the prospect of this would have terrified me, I feel fine with it now. Maybe even a little… excited?

No, don't be stupid Bella.

"Hey," He says as he walks out onto the balcony, "want some company?"

"Don't feel like you need to peel yourself away from the fun just to say hey to my sorry self."

But he ignores my statement and instead sits down on the chair next to me. Obviously not minding having his fun spoiled.

I have to admit, the sleeping next to him has started to become harder and harder. Especially with those fucked up dreams, sometimes when we wake up together all I want to do to him is-

"So how do you want to do it tonight?"

"I'm sorry?" I cough up my lungs, the smoke going down in the wrong sort of way. How do I want to do what? Do him?

I'd do him any way he asked me to.

Oh shut up, Bella.

"Sleeping arrangements," he shook his head as he patted my back, a quizzical look on his face, "the bus only has room for three tents really. Obviously Lucy and Jake will take one," he begins to count it out on his finger, "then you and Alice can share a tent, me and you can share a tent, or Alice and I can share a tent."

We would be very close in those small tents.

Would that be a good thing?

"Whatever you're more comfortable with."

Excellent, throw it back onto him. Crisis averted.

Please pick me. Please pick me. Please pick me.

"Why don't we share a tent tonight," he seems to be choosing his words carefully, "and then play it by ear?"

YES!

Wait, why am I excited about that?

"Sounds great," I tell him honestly, "now go back and join in before they send out a search party. I've got work to be getting on with." I tell him as I wave my phone in his face.

"What do you do for work Bells?" He asks as he hovers in the doorway.

Oh for fuck suck, not this again.

"Boring business stuff." I remind him.

He quirks his lips up into a smile, "do you not have a job title?"

"How about I'll tell you when you're struggling to get to sleep one night, it'll help send you off." I smile sarcastically.

He sighed, running his fingers through his coarse hair, "whatever Bells, deal."

I let the air leave my lungs as I watched him walk back into the apartment and settle back down around their 'campfire'.

Knowing that my mind is now far too muddled to actually work, I resort to some online shopping to fill the time and look busy to any outsiders looking in.

Summer clothes time.

OoOoO

I don't know how long I was browsing out on the balcony for, or even how much I'd spent on getting things sent to the office, but I 'm not broken out of my spell until I hear a ruckus inside from Alice as she dances around with a flashlight and blanket around her shoulders.

Oh wait, a few of them had flashlights.

Chuckling to myself, I head in to join the fun.

Edward pulls me down next to him and throws me a blanket to wrap around myself. The fake campfire in the middle rages on as everyone crowds around it. Wow, it was almost like real camping.

Shushing everyone down, Alice holds her flashlight down by her chest so the light shone up across her face.

"It was a dark and stormy night…" She began. Well this story won't be cliche at all.

There are a few giggles from her audience, but she shushes them all and starts again.

"It was a dark and stormy night," she repeats, "as the team of paranormal investigators headed to their next site: an old insane asylum. There were rumours that the ghosts of it's previous inhabitants still walked those dreaded hallways, screaming out as the cruel doctors administered all sorts of experimental treatments," she paused and looked around the room for dramatic effect as the wind began to rattle my apartment, "wanting to find out if this was true, they took their kit along for a little night time visit-"

"Alice do we really need to do this?" Edward groans.

Alice turned to him and gave him a frowny pout face, "yes we do," she whined, before getting back into character of course, "anyway," she gives Edward a pointed look, "as they pulled their truck up to the ancient building, they could feel it's aura, they could feel the pain and suffering of those who used to live within it," I could see Edward shaking his head next to me and did my best to stifle my own laughter, "pulling out their kit, they walked up to the ancient building.

"Spirits make yourself known!" they said, as the gang knocked on the ancient door.""

"What did they expect? A ghost to answer and offer them a cup of tea?" Edward laughs again.

Alice stomps her little feet on the floor, "if you're not going to shut up, go in your tent and keep your mouth shut. Now where was I?" she pauses, "ah yes. They heard no voices, but could feel the house groan. Letting themselves in they crept along the corridor. The wind _howled _around them as the rain pitter pattered against the window panes. Abandoned metal hospital beds cluttered the hallways and some even creaked a little as they passed them by," the whole story was added to by Alice looking around the circle with wide, wild eyes, "they passed a room that still had some personal possessions in, so they decided to take a look. Opening a stack of drawers, they found an old record collection that piqued their interest. As they began to pull out the sleeves to look at what music this person listened to when they were alive, they came across a battered old record where as the other all looked in perfect condition. As they pulled it out to examine it, they saw the words '_To Gemma, with all my hate' _written in red. As one of them read it out loud, they heard a bang behind them," Alice told them with gusto, "they all turned around and saw a shadowy figure which then darted off. They began to chase it but the door slammed shut before they could reach it, locking them in the room. At that moment, they heard music playing and red started to seep down the walls. Quick thinking as ever, they spotted the window and threw it open, all helping each other climb out. And then they ran, as quick as their legs would carry them, all the way back to the car. Jumping in, they started the engine and began to drive off. Just as they were leaving the grand driveway of the old building, they heard a bang from the back. As they all turned to find out the source of the noise, they saw a handprint, no bigger than a child's handprint, in the condensation on the back window. The only thing was, it was on the _inside." _

"BANG!" Edward shouted, making them all jump before he keeled over with laughter, "Oh come on, that's hilarious."

Now forgetting her scary persona, Alice pointed her torch back to the middle of them, "does anyone else have a scary story?"

"Ooh I do!" Jacob says with an excited grin. Alice handed him the torch and he did the same thing, holding it close and shining it up over his face, "it was a dark and stormy night-"

Everyone but Alice groaned.

"It was a dark and stormy night," Jacob looked around the circle with an evil grin on his face, "young Jason Black had just returned home from a hard day of work. As he walked into his house, he picked his mail up from the welcome mat inside. Flicking through the letters, he found one from _Forks Water Services. _With one eye closed in fear, he peeked between fingers to see what lied within the envelope," he paused, copying Alice's technique, "it was his water bill. _Ahhh!_"

Everyone around began to laugh hysterically, relating all too well to Jake's horror story.

"On that note, it's time for bed." Alice told us all as she clapped her hands down on her thighs. As I look around I notice that everyone has already changed into their pyjamas. Alice wore a pink unicorn ensemble with fluffy slippers, Jake and Ed both wore white tshirts and flannel pants, and Lucy wore a white vest top with tiny plaid shorts - boobs almost totally spilling over the top.

Shit! I'm behind.

I quickly dash to my room to get changed into my own set of pyjamas, jogging bottoms and a tshirt. Nothing Lucy level sexy tonight.

As I go to head back out, I feel like I'm running into a brick wall.

What's wrong with me? Why can't I go back out and join them?

Shit. The nightmares.

I walk back to my bed and take a seat, panicking about it. I don't want them to know about that side of me. Alice thinks it was a one off, Jake thinks they stopped, and Lucy has no idea.

I pull my phone off of my bedside table where I'd put it on charge and text Edward, praying that he had his phone on him in the other room.

**I'm not sure I can do this**

I text him honestly.

**Are you okay? Do you need me to come in?**

Thank god. His response is instant.

**It'll cause a scene**

Which is something I definitely do not want.

**What's wrong **

He texts back just as quickly, which I'm thankful for.

**I don't want them to hear me in the night**

When he doesn't respond right away, I begin to panic. He's probably sick of me now, always interfering in his fun.

I wait patiently though, drumming my fingers on my thighs. Not that I have a whole lot of choice in this situation.

**Come out, it'll be okay**

Fuck.

Will it though?

Taking in a few deep breaths, I head back into the living area. The others have all gone into their tents for the night, but Edward pokes his head out so I know which one to go into, before darting back in.

My phone, which I've accidentally brought out with me, buzzes in my hand.

**I've sorted the tent out for us. **

It's Edward.

Feeling a bit more confident now, I dart across and go into the tent with him, crouching down to have a look inside.

He wasn't kidding. He's zipped the two sleeping bags together so they join, and covered them with so many blankets I can't even count them all. He's also grabbed some pillows from my couch for added comfort and attached a torch light to the little string that dangles down from the middle of the roof.

And there he sits.

Atop it all, crossed legs, barefoot, grin on his face.

I pull my phone out and text him.

**Thanks**

He looks down at his phone as I crawl in

As I sit down next to him, I pull my phone out

**I want you to be comfortable**

I can feel his eyes burning into the top of my head as I read the text to myself

**You think about me too much**

I respond.

**I care about you, Bella**

I smile to myself and feel my face heat up

**I care about you too**

I look across and see that he has that same smile on his face now.

Taking my hand in his own, he helps us maneuver ourselves in the small space so we're both in the sleeping bags and under all of the blankets

I pull my phone back out when I'm comfortable in our little fortress.

**I'm scared that I'm going to wake everyone up and look like an idiot**

He pulls his phone out to see what I've said and I can see him frown at my words

**You're not an idiot. You have shit going on. They'll understand**

He seems so certain, but I just don't know.

**What if it makes them want to travel without me?**

He looks up at me, his eyebrows knitted together.

**They love you Bells, they wont ditch you**

I look away from him and I can feel a tear leak from the corner of my eye, I do my best to hide it from him.

**Don't be upset. I'm here for you**

I look at the text and ignore it, not even sure what I can reply to that.

But my phone buzzes again.

**If you like I can keep you close tonight. Then they wont hear a thing**

At this point I put my phone down to the side and turn to face Edward again. How is one man so perfect?

He opens his arms to me, and this time the only hesitation is on his part. I wriggle closer across the tiny space and cuddle into his side as he wraps an arm around my shoulder, tracing small patterns with his finger tips.

What have I done to deserve the friendship of a man like Edward Cullen?

As he stretches to turn the little flashlight out, I realise that it doesn't really matter what I've done. I just need to thank my lucky stars that I have him in my life.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thank you so much for all reviews! I have replied to them, but it looks like FF still aren't emailing us to let us know we've got a PM because I didn't realise until yesterday that I'd ignored a couple of you :( I've responded now though!**

**The road trip will be happening soon, I've started writing those chapters now - I hope you're all excited! I should let me you know as a lot of my readers are American, that I have never been to the US so my knowledge of these places are coming from google images and my imagination haha. **

AaAaA

**Edward POV**

Bookkeeping is not fun.

It is possibly the biggest downside to running a business.

I've been trying to chip away at is slowly, doing a portion each week, but it just builds up more than I can keep up with. Especially now I'm trying to get caught up before we leave, then have the joy of coming back to even more after weeks of not doing it.

Which is exactly why I've had to bring my paperwork folder with me to the bar tonight.

I scowl at Alice as her glass of wine gets a bit too close to the papers I have floating around the table top.

"Oh lighten up." She tells me, the woman who doesn't have shit loads of paperwork to do.

"I'm going to be up every night from now until the trip at this rate." I moan to the group, and the best bit is that even if I do do that, it still won't be finished!

So far it's only Lucy, Alice and I at the table. Jacob had some loose ends to tie up today before the roadtrip. We set off in exactly six days now, and after today I'll be the only one still working.

Three days to go.

Well, Bella is as well, but she's all the way over in New York until Sunday when she flies back. Cutting it fine by all accounts. We leave on Monday.

We're there for well over an hour, me doing my work and the girls arranging a quick trip to Seattle on Thursday, before Jake turns up still in his oily work clothes.

Lucy basically launches herself at him and Alice gives him a quick hug afterwards.

Glad they're all able to relax.

"Whatcha doing there?" He asks me as he sits on his bar stool.

I look over to him and sigh, "paperwork."

"Why don't you just ask Bella to do all that for you?" Jake asks with a smirk, as if asking some random girl to help would be the best solution. Why would she want to do my work for me? Is she even an accountant? Maybe that's her job, she did say it was business stuff…

"Why would Bella do it for me?" I ask as politely as I can manage seeing as his loud voice has distracted me enough to lose my place and now I need to start this adding up again.

"She loves that stuff! If she doesn't have the time, I can guarantee you she'll find someone," he shrugs at me, "so lets put that away and would you like a beer instead?"

"I'll hold you to that," I tell him, "and if she doesn't help me, I fully expect you to do it all for me."

"Deal." He says as he stands up and walks over to the bar in that too tight tshirt and oily jeans. Out of the few women in the bar, I notice 99% of them check him out. Some of the guys, too.

The girls continue to chatter away about clothes and shopping as Jacob returns to the table, beers in hand. He turns to join in their conversation, but backs out when he realises just what they're talking about. Instead he leans back and takes a big swig of his beer before leaning forward in my direction.

"Have you still got Bella's keys? I want to give the old girl a test run tomorrow to make sure she's ship shape for the trip." He asks me.

I fumble around in my pockets until I locate the keys, "there you go." I say as I slide them across the table to him before taking a few sips of my own beverage.

"Thanks." He says as he pockets them, "say what's going on between you and Bells anyway?"

I choke on my drink a little, not expecting to be questioned by Bella's guard dog, "uhh well nothing really."

I mean what can I really tell him? In how much depth can I go? I used to sleep on the sofa, now I sleep in her bed, she has weird nightmares that I apparently feature in sometimes, but nothing goes on, oh apart from the one time she jumped on me - I'm sure Jacob would love to hear about that.

He quirks his eyebrow at me and grins, "you're telling me the pair of you aren't going to be sharing a tent on this road trip?"

"We will be. Just as friends. It was either share with Bella or share with Alice, and I'm sure you wouldn't be asking these questions if I was tent sharing with my cousin." Crisis averted.

"You said my name?" Ah shit maybe not.

"I wanna know what's going on between Cullen and Bells." Jacob talks to Alice but motions to me with his arm.

Alice gives me that devilish look of hers, "yeah Eddie why don't you tell us?"

Well this went from bad to worse pretty quickly. I don't think I'm getting out of here alive.

"Spill it." Lucy laughs.

Feeling pretty ganged up on, I do my best to answer honestly, "Bella has trouble sleeping sometimes so I've been staying over to help her with it."

"Most people just take Xanax to help them sleep, Eddie. What's really going on?" Alice asks me, obviously the information provided was not enough.

I place my elbows on the table and rest my head in my hands. Why do I feel like I'm in school again? "We're just friends." I tell them, but by the looks on their faces, I know they're not buying it.

"Hey Luc when did you last have a friend who slept over yours every night?" Alice asks as she taps her top lip.

Lucy laughs and nudged her shoulder into Jacob, "that would be this guy and lets just say we didn't get much sleeping done."

I groan as Jacob pulls Lucy into a hug and places a big, slobbery kiss across her face as she squeals. Well that's enough to put me off my food for a while.

He pulls away and his face drops, it's almost unnerving, "if you do hurt her, I will kill you."

I grip the back of my neck and splutter on my beer once again, which he finds hilarious. He gives me a friendly punch on the arm and the three of them are set off in hysterics.

"Well you know what they say," Alice begins when they call calm down, "if the tents a rockin, don't come a knockin. And that goes for all of you as well, if I pick up some handsome man on the road, I expect to be left to it." She waggles her eyebrows which sets Lucy and Jake off again.

I groan and my face goes back into my hands as I shake my head, "I did not need to know that."

Thankfully my phone rings before I can hear anything else that turns my stomach.

I jump up from my chair and head outside to answer.

"Hey Bella, everything okay?" I ask down the phone, we haven't spoken since she left last week other than the odd text here and there.

"_Hey, thanks for answering." _The line's crackly but I can hear a defeated tone in her voice.

I frown and start to pace up and down outside the bar, "Of course. You don't sound yourself."

"_I'm just tired." _She tells me, but this sounds like more than tired Bella.

"And you're sure there's nothing else?" I ask her as I come to a dead stop. I find myself worrying about Bella more than I should. I know she'd the big bad wolf who lived in New York for years, she's no small town bell, but she just seems so fragile at times. Two drunken idiots stumble out the bar behind me and one walks right into the bin, muffling her response as he stands up swearing and his friend keels over in fits of laughter, "can you repeat that please?"

"_You sound busy, Edward. I'm sorry I distured you." _She tells me before hanging up the phone. I instantly redial her number but she doesn't answer. What the fuck?

But hell, there's not a lot I can do now.

I walk back into the bar and head over to the table where the three of them all seem to be staring at me.

"What do you want?" I question a little harshly to my audience.

"Who was that on the phone?" Lucy asks me.

"Was it _Bella?_" Alice asks, looking up at the ceiling, rocking her head and making little smoochy sounds.

"Oh damn not you as well Jake?" I ask as I turn and realise that he too is making those same kissing noises with his chin resting on his hands, "we're not together, guys. We're just friends and she's a friend who needs some help."

"I'm sure you're right, Ed," Alice starts as she places her hand over mine and looks my dead in the eye, "just like you need some help when you're sick of your left hand."

And they're off again. I'm going to have to ask the bartender to cut my cousin off in a minute because she has certainly had one too many.

"Do you mind making sure Alice gets home okay, Jake? I'm going to head off, unlike you layabouts I've got work in the morning." I'm done. Officially done with this lot tonight. If I stick around any longer, I'll be babysitting the lot of them.

"Sure thing." He says as I pass him by, he gives me a pat on the back and Lucy gives me a hug. I purposely ignore Alice and I can hear her cackling about that as well as I walk off and leave.

Pulling me coat tighter around me, I start the short walk home.

I wouldn't mind the jokes so much if I actually knew what the hell was going on. It was confusing at the start of the night, but the phone call just made it worse. I do worry that time away from Bella will make things awkward for when we travel.

With that in mind I pull my phone out and shoot her a quick text.

**Hey I was wondering if you could do me a massive favour. **

I think changing the subject was a good move. Or at least I hope so anyway.

Pocketing my phone I head back and crash as soon as I get into my room.

OoOoO

I wake up and get on with my usual routine the next morning. After a shower, I throw on my work clothes and sit down at the table with a cup of coffee. I can hear Alice snoring in the room next door, I heard her get back at about 3am last night so I can only assume that the group of them decided to celebrate no more work for a few weeks.

Pulling my phone out to do my usual morning puzzles, I see a text from Bella.

**Hey sure how can I help?**

I sent that text due to having a beer in the system last night, surely it would be too much to ask her to do my work for me. But Jake did say and I do hate it…

**Jake mentioned that you're good with numbers and things. He said I should ask you for help with my books**

I mean what's the worst that can happen? She can say no.

**I think you have my email but let me know if you don't. How much is there? I'm sure I can get them done by the end of tomorrow**

That was certainly quicker than I expected.

**Are you sure? I know it's a lot to ask**

I panic as soon as I hit send, maybe she didn't mean for free. I know she works with business stuff. Shit what if I can't afford her New York prices?

**How much do you charge? I should have asked that first**

What do I do if it's too much? That will certainly make the road trip somewhat awkward.

**Don't be silly. Just send them over**

Not needing to be asked twice, I walk over to my ancient scanner and fire it up so I can scan everything across to her. I'm old school like that, everything was hand written with proper receipts on that annoying paper that fades so quickly that most of my accounts are guess work.

**I appreciate this. What's your email?**

I fire across the text as the draconian machine starts to come to life. Unlike her other messages, she takes a while to respond to this one.

**Send it to Mike if that's okay, he'll forward it where it needs to go. **

Bit weird. Is he going to be doing the work? Still, I can't complain if the hard work is being done for me.

It takes just over an hour and four more coffees to scan everything in and send it to Mike. I'm just about ready to throw the scanner out of the damn window right now with how slow it goes.

"Shit." I mutter as I see the time, 8.15am, the guys will be arriving at site around about now.

OoOoO

At around 3pm I get a call from an unknown number, "Hello?" I answer.

"_Hey it's Mike." _The person on the other end answers. Mike? Oh yeah, Mike.

"Oh hi. Is there a problem?" I ask as I put down my shovel and go to sit in my car where it's quieter.

"_I'm just giving you a quick call to let you know the books are done and I've emailed you the stuff back. We've had the best team on the job and I hope you don't mind but we've taken the liberty of uploading it onto our software so it's easier for future use come tax season." _He tells me. Fuck. That sounds expensive.

"Uhh thanks, but this was just a favour from Bella. How much is the software?" I scratch the back of my neck not really wanting to be discussing finances with a guy I don't trust.

I can just hear him laughing down the phone the prat, "_in all honesty you probably don't want to know, but Bells would kill me if I even thought about charging you for the service." _

"Thanks but I don't want her to get in trouble for helping me out or anything, I thought she'd look over them after work or something." I tell him honestly as I fuss with the heaters in the car.

The prat continues to laugh at me down the phone, I'm starting to really dislike the guy, "_I can assure you it won't get her in any trouble."_

What sort of company does she work for that allows her to put the best team on a favour for a friend?

"Well thanks Mike." I tell him honestly, "and pass my thanks along to Bella as well."

"_Will do, bro." _He says as he continues to laugh down the phone, I hang up when I can't bear to hear him anymore.

Well at least the accounts are done I suppose.

I quickly go onto my emails and Mike was right, there they are. I open it on my phone on the off chance it will work and it links me to an app download. An app? For accounts? This stuff really is fancy. I hurriedly download it so I can have a look at them, and damn that's impressive. That's weeks worth of evening work for me and not only is it's done, but it's done well! I see the Price Investments logo at the bottom of each page, reminding me of that google search all that time ago. I still haven't quite got to the bottom of it. Maybe the road trip will throw up some answers instead of more questions.

But it's Bella, so probably not.

I pull out my phone again and decide to search the company again. This Time I search 'Price Investments CEO'.

Scrolling through the results, I find one that sounds promising and click on it.

_Price Investments is a relatively new company, only three years old, but has taken New York by storm. With the young owner, Isabella Price, the company is known for its fresh take on business. Buying up failing businesses, they have implemented their use of 'Price Coaches' to have a go at turning them around. It has given them great success and now they have a queue of businesses looking for not only their investment, but their top of the game coaches as well. Ms Price has been quoted as saying she could never have done this without her right hand man, Micheal Newton. _

After that the article shoots off into yet more information on that smarmy git Newton, with those same pictures of him in his suit. I close the tab in frustration. There's no pictures of the owner.

Bella obviously has friends in high places if that's her best friend out there, and she must work for the same company too. Maybe that's how she got that sorted for me, it must have been why I had to email Mike.

Trying not to think about it too much, I jump out of the car and go back to help the guys.

I've given Seth the control now to see how he does, and he's taken to it brilliantly. He's even bossing me around as I get on with the work.

As the rain starts to pour down over us in a sudden downpour, I have to admit that the slightest tingle of excitement ripples through me. Maybe a road trip to somewhere hot and sunny won't be the worst thing in the world.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry for not updating as much this week - the general election in the UK was today and I've been campaigning my heart out non stop all week. This chapter may end up being a little shorter than usual, simply because I'm struggling to focus, but I didn't want to leave all of my lovely followers and reviewers without. **

AaAaA

**BPOV**

"Do you really have to go, Bells?" Mike asks me as he sits on the desk in the office, stealing all of the small cool breeze the desk fan was providing me with.

"Yes, yes I do. I haven't had time off since we started this thing." I say with a sigh, giving him my best leave me alone look. A look he definitely understands, but always chooses to ignore anyway.

I look around my office feeling bored as Mike continues to fuss over the pen pot on my desk, for such a hard worker he's being a clinger today. Probably due to the fact I'm leaving in just two days. The modern design and view of the New York skyline just doesn't seem to be cutting it anymore, could it be that I actually miss the trees I see outside my window at home in Forks?

Plus when I'm there I can sit in pyjamas, or yoga pants, or absolutely nothing. Here I'm stuck in pencil skirts, stuffy blazers, and high heeled shoes that kill my feet.

"What if I want to go on holiday?" Mike asks me, now flicking elastic bands at the waste paper basket in the corner of the room.

I tilt my head and shrug my shoulders at the needy guy, "then you go. It would probably be a good thing for you and Jess to go away."

"But you're away so now I can't." He tells me with a slight pout. What is up with this guy?

"Mike, I'm going. If you can't wait until I'm back, I'm sure the building will still be standing when we both get back." Mike has slowly started to become more and more concerned about my departure as time has gone on. It'll be the first time he's done everything on his own since we started up. I know he can do it, he just doesn't know yet.

"Fine, fine. I'll be setting your office up as an office gym whilst you're gone though." He says with a smirk, his blue eyes lighten up immediately.

I can't help but laugh, "you do that. Now go, do some work!" I tell him as I slap his arm. He jumps down from my desk and saunters out of the office.

As soon as he leaves I attempt to get on with some work. It's mostly just signing on the dotted line, I don't have another meeting until later this afternoon.

Oh god it's dull.

This stuff used to excite me, I used to live for it, but now my mind is more focused towards a certain bus, a particular road trip, and a spectacularly unruly head of brownish hair…

I lean towards my desk fan to try and blow away that last thought from my mind.

No, Bella. Absolutely not.

You're not ready.

I begin to tap my fingers on the edge of my desk and remove my shoes to try and displace the dull ache forming in them from the stupid shoes.

I need sleep. I'm fucking exhausted.

Why the nightmares have come back with vengance I do not know, all I know is that they've gone from every few days to every single fucking night. At least in Forks I had Edward to help me, but here I spend my nights alone in the hotel room.

Well, I say I've spent my time in the hotel room, but in reality the majority of my time has been spent at the office and at the bar - I've even been beating Mike in in the mornings which is really saying something.

I pull my phone out and my finger hovers over Edward's name. He'll have finished work now, he'll just be prepping for the trip like the others.

I stand up and pad around the office, taking a moment to look at the skyline, so look at every single building, the taxis below, the water in the distance, the hundreds of thousands of people rushing around late for meetings or their train or their flight.

It's easy to become submerged in the NYC bubble. The draw of possibility, of a metropolitan lifestyle, of big city life. I would know, I've been in the bubble for years. Probably for many more years to come. But all just seems so… shallow to me now.

I pull my phone out again.

**How how's the trip planning going?**

I text Edward, finally giving in to my craving.

**Not bad Bella, visiting Rosalie and Emmet and the kids before I go. Hows work?**

The response is pretty much instant which I'm thankful for.

**Work is fine, I've got Mike on my ass 24/7 but only two days to go**

It feels weird having a pretty normal, lighthearted conversation, but it also feels right. As if the craziness of the world outside has suddenly stopped, and instead been replaced with just the two of us on some remote island together in the middle of the ocean.

**You tell him where to go!**

Edward tells me. I feel a smirk growing on my face as I respond to his messages.

**Okay okay. I'll see you in a couple days**

I put my phone back on my desk with a smile on my face. Somehow Edward always manages to make my day somewhat better.

But I cannot open myself up. Not again. It can't happen.

OoOoO

I feel my heart thump as the plane lands in Seattle. Just a car journey away and I'll be in Forks, tomorrow we'll be setting out on our trip.

Part of me wants to stay in the airport and take the first plane back to New York. But that can't happen. I have too much to accomplish, too many plans, too many friends.

Friends? I'm shocked.

It'll be worth it, Bella, it'll be worth it.

I just have to keep telling myself that.

ZzZzZ

**A/N: Sorry for the very, VERY short chapter. The exit poll results have put out my writer's flame right now :(**


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